Sword Art Online: Hollow Shadows
by WarlockFa11enCaptain
Summary: This story is set during the Hollow Fragment game Arc. A new character, Kohr, meets Kirito in the Hollow Area, and they embark on an adventure spanning the Hollow Area. Along the way, they meet Kohr's friend IRL, and a cheeky little orange player thief named Chelsea. Kirito has his own unique skill: Dual Wielding, while Kohr has his own unique skill: Bastard Skill.
1. Chapter 1

_Hollow Shadows_

Prologue

Kohr

Looking out the window at the sky always calmed Kohr down. But now, he had something else that could calm him down. A new game, called Sword Art Online. It was the first of its kind, a Virtual Reality game, powered by a state of the art technological marvel, the NerveGear. The NerveGear was created and developed in Japan by a genius named Kayaba Akihiko. The NerveGear had the ability to reroute the user's nerves from their brain to the VRMMORPG, or the Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. This ability was appropriately named, Full Dive, where the user went into a comatose-like state, where their physical body was incapacitated and their consciousness was transferred to a video game. This technology was beyond the world at the time, and the United States wanted to get in on the action of the Virtual Reality idea. That's why a certain company's director decided to send Noah. Adequate in material science, chemistry, a degree in Chemical Engineering and a hobby of programming video games, Noah was perfectly qualified to study the system that made the VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, what it was. However, Noah was one of three people who were given special permission to use the game as testing grounds, in an attempt to keep a low profile. Noah had been given full access as a Beta Tester of the game, but kept a low profile about it. His research came first, not getting ahead of other players. After the beta test, he was given the green light to buy one of the first ten-thousand copies of the game. However, the other two testers were not allowed access to their copies until a couple weeks after the release. The pre-testing was to be done by Noah. And in an attempt to keep Argus in the way of their research, or from detecting their research, Noah and the other two researchers were not made aware of the other's identities. Starting off, Noah logged on as his character, which was named Kohr. He logged on and the moment he was inside, his research began. His research was progressing well after about four hours, and he was on his way to the next town, when he began to glow. A forced teleport put him back in the Town of Beginnings. Kohr looked around as the sky began red with warning signs. He watched as a character began to appear from the sky, introducing himself as Kayaba Akihiko. He went on to explain that he removed the log off button, to create one of the world's biggest testing grounds: Sword Art Online. And the biggest shock was that if one died in the game, the NerveGear would overload the electrons passing through the player's brain, frying it in a single pulse, instantly killing them. Kohr turned around as he had heard enough of the director of the famous VRMMORPG, and went on to the next town. As panic began to spread even further in the crowds, everyone suddenly began to glow, until when it subsided, nothing was left of their avatar, and all that remained was their real identities. Kohr pressed on to the exit to town until the sky returned to normal and chaos broke out in the town square. Kohr broke into a run as he sprinted to the path leading to the next town. And as he ran outside of the city limits, he thought to himself as he cut down an enemy in his way, that nothing was going to stand in the way of both his research and his conquest over the game he was now sealed to. And so the game began.

. . .

Chapter I

Kirito

His sword descended upon the Orc Warrior with a clang as it hit its armor. It pinged off and came back down again for a second attack with inhuman speed, clashing with the Orc's sword. The sword fell to the ground as the Orc glanced up just in time to see a streak of turquoise metal flying towards a chink in his armor. The next second, the Orc shimmered in the air, and as the blue colored sword was retrieved from the monster, he flashed and suddenly broke into a million pieces. The warrior clad in black looked over towards where his opponent used to stand, gathered up his winnings, and left the battle site, headed towards a bridge that he thought might just lead him out of the unknown forest.

Kirito had been walking on the bridge for what seemed like an entire year now, and he was getting really sick of the endless stretch of rock that seemed to go on forever. He was just about to turn around and go back the way he came, when he heard someone running behind him. Kirito turned around and saw a figure clad in black and red clothes, and not watching where she was going. Kirito had no time to react before she ran full force into him.

"Ow..."

"What the hell you idiot! Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry about that... Wait. What am I apologizing for?! You're the one who ran into me!"

"I'm trying to get away from someone, so if you don't mind, MOVE IT!"

Kirito was repulsed by how rude she was, but politely obliged. He moved out of her way and let her pass.

"Well that was unexpected."

Kirito was about to turn around and continue walking the length of the bridge, when suddenly, he saw another figure wearing red and silver armor come barreling towards him. Kirito immediately realized that the armored man wasn't going to stop, and he quickly sidestepped and dodged out of the way of the incoming train. He looked over at the person who had stopped a couple feet from him. The figure in armor I equipped his helm and looked at him through a mop of brown hair with a pair of brown eyes. The character appeared to be a bit older than Kirito, but he had a childish look and act to him.

"Did you see a girl in black and red come running through here?"

"Why, what did she do?

"Aha... so you DID see her. Would you mind telling me which way she went?"

"Ummm... we're on a bridge. I believe there is only one way she could've gone."

"Hey. Don't get smart with me, kid. Unless you want a face full of dirt."

"Ooohhhh. I'd love to see you try!"

"Ok, look kid. As much as I'd love to teach you some manners, I have places to be and things to do. So if you don't mind, MOVE!"

Kirito was astounded by how much power and force was in his voice. His first reaction was to pull out his sword. The armored man took that action as a challenge and opened up a window and issued a challenge to Kirito. Out of instinct, Kirito hit enter, and almost regretted it when his opponent unsheathed his weapon.

His opponent pulled out a two handed sword of considerable length. The sword was of a gold origin in the hilt; however the blade of the sword was of a material that Kirito had never seen in SAO. It looked like glass at first glance, but Kirito knew there was no such material in SAO. Kirito almost laughed at his opponent's choice of weapon, but thought better of it. This opponent obviously knew why he was doing to choose a weapon such as it in a place like this. Kirito was suddenly caught off-guard by the obscurity of the sword's material, and the fact that his sword was glowing! The warrior used that moment to rush Kirito with a speed that was insane for someone with armor such as his, but Kirito's reaction time was the fastest in the game. He brought his sword up in an uppercut motion to stop the intended path of the sword, but was met with a surprise. The two swords clashed together, but instead of his sword meeting with equal resistance, the Elucidator was practically knocked from his hand. Kirito just barely held onto his sword until it hit the ground. Kirito looked up to his opponent in confusion as the armored man kicked Kirito in the face, sending him flying.

(Author's Note)

SO! This is my first chapter in a story that I have been writing for a while now, and I am thinking that about every week I'll post a new chapter. This will give me time to edit them to as good as I can get, and give all of you people time to tell me what you thought. Please! I encourage, and in fact, I WANT you, yes YOU, to comment on this. Please tell me any mistakes I made, in terms of the game, descriptions, and even grammar. Tell me what you thought about it, and anything else you would like to say to me. I don't care if it's that my story could definitely be better (I'm pretty sure everyone know's that their own story could use work), or if it's that I'm doing great, and to keep up the good work. I don't care, I just want to hear what your thoughts are. Thanks!

-Kohr


	2. Chapter 2

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter II

Kohr

Kohr had been strolling through the woods, enjoying his time off. He had been fighting monsters all afternoon, picking up rare items, opening chests, and completing Hollow Area missions. He brushed aside a lock of his brown hair. His armor clinked when he walked and his sword banged against his thigh. He stopped near a thicket of bushes and sat down. He enjoyed the small things in life when he was alone. It was peaceful. He loved the swaying of the trees on a day with no clouds and a blue sky. The birds chirping in the trees caught his attention. They sounded so real, even though they were completely unaware that they were nothing more than data in a virtual world.

But Kohr loved that kind of thing. Virtual worlds seeming so real, he could just lose himself in the sounds and wonders of the world. But his thoughts were interrupted when a crash startled him, and a girl stumbled through the thickets, and tripped over him, landing on top of him. Kohr looked up at her face and found himself speechless. Piercing blue eyes, ruby red lips, flowing red hair, and a small pair of what looked like headphones on her head. Kohr noticed a rapier along the side of her short, red plaid skirt, partially covered by a black button up shirt with a silver collar and brown leather boots supporting her feet up to the middle of her shin. She then looked down at him and he saw her lips moving but couldn't hear her. He shook his thoughts from his head and returned to reality. She was yelling at him, but he could only catch snippets of her conversation.

Her words were silenced as a large Chaos Gryphon came crashing through the thickets like she had, only he was more ferocious and a lot less beautiful. Without hesitating, Kohr pulled out Besetzt, his favorite two handed sword, and hacking away at the Gryphon. Kohr charged the Gryphon full force, ramming his shoulder into the Gryphon's beak, and swung his sword in an arc, slashing his sword through the gryphon in one slice, turning the gryphon back into pure data. He then turned to face the female player, and found that she was already gone. Kohr immediately checked his area map and found a player headed towards the forest exit. He followed the player to the exit; positive she was who he had been looking for.

Running after her in his armor was killing him. His armor weighed more than a physical ton, and he was chasing after a nimble girl who had a head start. What the hell was he thinking? His thought was cut short when he practically steamrolled over a kid in black clothes. Kohr turned around to face the boy and caught a glimpse of his face. The black clothes aside, he had jet-black, one handed sword on his back, and no shield. Immediately, Kohr recognized him. His name was Kirito. He was the "beater" from the front lines. As a beta tester, he won a couple brownie points with Kohr. Anyone beta tester who was still around was given credit where it deserved. And while Kirito looked no older than 16, Kohr knew that he could not underestimate him. He discreetly activated his defense skill to be prepared, and broke the silence by asking him if he saw a girl run by him. After a couple of smart mouth comments, both warriors drew their swords, and charged.

After the first blow, Kohr could tell that Kirito was surprised. He also saw his look of frustration as the same thing happened over and over, and Kohr smiled knowing that he had the best player in the game on edge. Kohr's sword ability was designed to knock aside swords that were inferior to his own. Any sword of equal or less weight was to be knocked aside when they came in contact with Kohr's sword, Requiem. Kohr's grin widened as the black swordsman regained his composure and began attacking with renewed ferocity. Kohr brought Requiem down with upon Kirito's sword, again knocking it to the ground. Kohr used the momentum from Requiem hitting the ground to swing upwards with all of his might. Kohr's sword made contact with Kirito, sending him reeling back from a hard hit. Kohr took a moment to spin around, using his bodily momentum to swing his sword around his body, and bringing it out in front of him with inhuman speed. But instead of knocking the black swordsman off of his feet, Kohr met resistance of a different kind. And when he looked in front of him, he saw his two handed sword was being blocked by two different swords. Dual-Wielding. Kirito's unique skill. Kohr smiled harder as the battle began to get interesting.

Kohr stepped back avoid an incoming onslaught of swirling blades and slashes, which gave him an opportunity to activate his own unique skill. His sword, Requiem, began glowing bright red, and as it got brighter and brighter, Kohr let his left hand drop from the sword, and Kirito's countenance spoke Kohr's mind. Kohr was now using a big-ass one handed sword.

The Black Swordsman regained his composure and charged Kohr. Kohr's had increased speed due to his new skill, and he used his new speed to easily dodge the attack and parry. Their swords clashed and the two battered at each other, Kohr's armor taking most of the attacks and the Black Swordsman's agility out maneuvering Kohr's attacks. Kohr grabbed the hilt with both hands and slashed at his legs, and he jumped to avoid it. Kohr switched to a one-handed style to increase his attack speed and knocked him to the ground. He switched back to a two-handed fighting style and brought Requiem down on the Black Swordsman. He cut a straight line through his chest causing massive damage to his opponent. He began to prepare another assault, but he was interrupted by his opponent moving at a faster speed than before. He suddenly realized that the Black Swordsman was using his one of his ultimate skills. His swords began to glow yellow as the sword skill activated. The light from his swords began to blind Kohr, as the sword skill exploded to life. He began to swing his swords faster than Kohr could follow. He gashed Kohr's arm. Sliced his leg. Cut his chest. Slash after slash, and they just kept coming. Six, seven, ten, twelve, sixteen, twenty! The Black Swordsman's attacks became slower after 20 hits, and soon his ultimate skill stopped. Twenty-three hits. Kohr had lost almost 1/3 of his health. He knew he had no choice. Kohr stepped back from his opponent. He activated his own ultimate skill. He felt the skill begin to well up inside of him, wanting to escape. He felt it boil over to the surface and he let it explode like a volcanic eruption. He looked at his opponent with hatred in his eyes. His sword began to glow purple, and he could see his opponent preparing another sword skill. He had no time to waste. Kohr release the skill at his opponent.

"BESETZT KÖNIG!"

Kohr's sword immediately changed from purple to a solid black color. In the center of the sword, a vortex began to appear as the sword turned black. It spread to the outer edges of the blade, and soon the whole sword became a swirling black void. The Black Swordsman looked at the sword in confusion and awe. He activated his own sword skill. His two blades began to glow two vibrant shades of blue. Kohr had heard enough stories to know that he was activating his final ultimate skill.

"STARBURST STREAM!"

The Black Swordsman screamed at Kohr, intimidating him for a brief moment. But he continued with his ultimate sword skill. Kohr swung Besetzt at his opponent once. A single slice to the mid-section with one hand. He swung again with two hands. An uppercut to the chest. One hand stab to the arm. One hand slash to the shin. Two handed slice to the stomach. One handed spin to the waist. One handed stab to the leg. One handed stab to the arm. One handed stab to the other arm. Two handed slice to the legs. Finally, Kohr finished his ultimate onslaught by flipping over and dodging out of the Black Swordsman's way of his final attack from Starburst Stream, and throwing his sword up, slicing his back with a two handed uppercut, and finished his Ultimate Bastard sword skill by jumping up to his sword, spinning down, and landing his sword on the Black Swordsman's head, and dragging it all the way to the ground, leaving a huge gash from his head to his lower back. He looked at his own health bar. The Starburst Stream attack had done more damage than Kohr had thought it would. His health bar was in the red zone. He had only 859 hit points out of 35,719. He looked at the Black Swordsman. He also had almost the same figure. They both had stopped their onslaught of attacks almost three minutes ago.

Suddenly, both warriors fell to the ground. They looked at each other in understanding of how close they had both come to death in this world. And that would mean certain death in the real world as well. Kohr was about to speak to the Black Swordsman when he heard a small clapping sound. He looked over to his left and saw something that blew his mind. The girl whom he had been chasing was sitting on rock next to them, probably watching them the whole time as well, clapping.

"What the fu...

(Author's Note)

So this is my second chapter in the story. Please feel free to comment below, for anything from criticisms to praise. Everything is appreciated. As for the next chapter, it will be posted tomorrow, and the following chapter next week. I have completed all of the chapters, and I am in the process of going through and editing them. I am also creating many short stories, so please PLEASE let me know if you would like to see any of these at the end of the chapters. Thanks!

-Kohr


	3. Chapter 3

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter III

Chelsea.

"...ck?! When the hell did you get here?"

Chelsea looked at the man in the armor who was chasing her earlier. She had no intention of answering his question directly.

"Long enough watch you two kick each other's asses."

At that comment, Chelsea sat back on her rock and laughed so hard she almost fell off. After she was done with her laughing fit, she wiped a year from her eye and looked back at the two men in front of her. One was the man who chased her, while the other was someone new. From his attire, Chelsea could only assume that he was Kirito. The black swordsman. Interesting.

"Well, now that you are done with your temper tantrums, I think I'll be on my way."

Chelsea jumped down from the rock and knocked both of them to the ground under her feet. With unparalleled speed, she opened her menu and a virus showed up on both warriors' screens. Their swords disappeared from their hands and appeared in her inventory, just before she took off. All of that happened in less than 3 seconds. She looked back at the armored man and gave him a smile and winked at him. She could tell even without seeing his face that he was blushing. Chelsea loved how easy it was to manipulate men to her advantage. As she continued going, she heard the two of them getting up over their stupor and attempting to pursue her. Chelsea ran faster. Her equipment was light enough to walk faster than the two of them could run. As she approached the top of a hill, she ran until they were almost at the top, and then she jumped into a tree nearby and slowed her breathing. Her stealth was unparalleled. She watched below as the warriors came by the tree, and ran right by her. She jumped down from the tree and ran back the way she came.

"What idiots. They completely fell for it!"

Then she reached the bridge and realized that they weren't such idiots that she had made them out to be. They had managed to put a clusterfuck of traps at the beginning of the bridge.

"Very clever."

Chelsea turned around and ran the other way. She heard a commotion up ahead and slowed her breathing. Her stealth skill couldn't fail her now. She peeked over the ridge and saw the two warriors working together to set up row upon row of traps along the edges of the forest, cliffs, and the other exit of the forest.

"No!"

Chelsea quickly hit the dirt and clamped her hand over her mouth. Had they heard her? She had no idea. She waited a couple seconds. When nothing happened, she looked up over the ridge. It was getting dark enough out, that shadows had all but disappeared, and all she saw was a faint glow from the traps on the ground. No sign of the two men who were there earlier. This worried her. As she was thinking to herself, Chelsea didn't notice someone creeping up behind her. She turned around and saw a leather covered hand grab her neck and fling her to the ground. She looked up to see the man in armor looking down on her. The Black Swordsman walked out from behind a tree. She looked back at the armored man who was now choking her.

"But...how could...you...find...me?!

"Simple. Kirito's detection skill is higher than your hiding skill."

"D-damn..."

Chelsea looked at the Black Swordsman as her vision was beginning to blur. The armored man then dropped her to the ground. She looked back at the Black Swordsman as he walked towards her, fire burning in his eyes. Chelsea became frightened and tried to crawl away from him, but he grabbed her by the collar before she could escape. He looked up at her and stared into her blue eyes, into her soul, it felt like, and then her vision blacked out and she lost consciousness.

. . .

When Chelsea awoke, she looked around and noticed that she was in a clearing of trees. It was nighttime, so it was hard to make any other figures. The clearing was surrounded by a forest, and she couldn't see an immediate exit. Her head swung side to side desperately searching for a way out when a she heard a voice.

"There's no escape this time sweetheart..."

Chelsea looked at the ground in front of her and saw a shadow step out from behind her own. Out of her peripheral vision she saw another shadow start walking towards her from out of the darkness of the trees. She began to get scared of what they were going to do with her. They were faster than her, stronger than her and much better equipped to be out here longer than she was. And she had no idea where exactly she was. The shadow behind her stepped into view. She recognized him as the warrior in armor, only now he was wearing a blue t-shirt with jeans instead of armor. His brown hair flopped over his eyes and he flipped it out of the way. The other one came into view and she immediately recognized him as the Black Swordsman. He looked at her with a more gentle but firm look of disappointment. She turned back to face the warrior in front of her. He looked down at her and spoke.

"My name is Kohr. This here is Kirito. You might recognize him from the front lines."

Chelsea rolled her eyes at him.

"I know who he is. I don't know who you are though. What do you two want from me?"

Chelsea noted the fear in her own voice. And apparently, so did Kohr.

"Well, all we want is information. Like whom you are. Why you're an orange player. How have you survived in this area so long? Those kinds of questions. Hopefully, we were thinking you would comply. If not, well..."

He held up a sword to her throat. She peered down at the blade very cautiously, until she became flooded with anger. The blade pointed at her throat was her own! She suddenly understood what the two warriors had been feeling when she took their blades. She calmed down a little and regained her composure.

"All right. What would you like to know?"

"Well for starters, you can tell us your name, and why you decided to take our weapons instead of killing us?"

"My name is Chelsea. I took your swords because I wanted to sell them to a high paying blacksmith for money."

"No surprise there..."

"As for why I didn't kill you, I figured that you wouldn't be much of a problem since you had each other to worry about. Clearly, I was wrong."

"Well then Chelsea. I have only one question left and then I'll turn you over to Kirito; why are you an orange player*?"

"Do I really have to answer that question?"

The one called Kohr held her rapier up to her throat.

"Yes you do..."

"Fine. When SAO started, I started it with five other friends of mine. We were all raring to beat this death trap. We knew we had to get out of here no matter the costs. We trained and trained for a long time in the Town of Beginnings*. We made it past the first floor, and up to the 15th floor. By that time, the assault team had already made it to the 45th floor. We felt as though we were so behind. So we decided to up our game. We travelled all the way from the 15th floor to the 35th floor. The monsters were stronger, but we somehow managed to survive through it all. We decided to spend an extra night in the forest training. We had advanced up to the higher floors, making it to floor 60. We were doing fine, until one day; we came across a man in a gray trench coat. He said that he had been separated from his party. We decided that we would help the guy. He ended up leading us to a dead end in the middle of nowhere. He turned around and said to us, 'This is where you die.' He pulled out a sword and six others came out of the shadows wearing gray hoods like he did. They attacked us all at once. One of my friends died immediately. The rest of us grouped up and formed a circle. We held them off for a good five minutes. Then they started using moves to cause status affects. Our leader was infected with a long lasting paralysis. Another member infected with a high level poisoning method. Another with a bleeding status. Soon, all of us were infected with some kind of status. I was infected with a poison. It burned as I fought back. My health bar depleted into the yellow. Our leader died, and the member infected with poison right after him. I took out at least two of them, but four were left. And there were only three of us. My other friend died of a stab wound to the chest. Only two left. He yelled at me to run. I didn't listen. I stayed and fought with him until he fell. I looked around. Surrounded by four murderers and my own health bar was in the red. I didn't know what else to do. I thought that I was going to die right there. Then, a miracle happened. I began to glow. My health bar began to replenish itself. My poisoned status was removed. I had no idea how it happened, until I saw an ultimate potion in my friend's hand. He used on my. He then died. I looked at the four men with hatred in my eyes. I looked at them, their health bars in the yellow. But me, I was at full health, and full of hate. I used it to my advantage. I proceeded to kill them all as painfully and slowly as I possibly could, starting with kicking them in their dicks. The last one to die was the man in the trench coat we met first. I killed him without a second thought.

That's why I'm an orange player."

"Wow... I can't believe every single one of them got kicked in the dick..."

(Author's Note)

Sorry this story wasn't up at the time I had said it was going to be. I got busy with school. AP Physics is rough. Please comment, and like always, it is all appreciated. Even if you are a guest, and you don't have an account, please comment. I would like to hear it all. Also, I'm still working on the Short Stories and other "commentaries", so please let me know if anybody would like to see any of those. Lastly, the next chapter is going to be up in the next 24 hours, so expect to see chapter 4 very soon. Thanks!

-Kohr


	4. Chapter 4

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter IV

Kirito

Kirito stood up as Kohr walked away from Chelsea. Kirito slowly walked up to her, and noticed a tinge of fear in her eyes as he approached her. He looked down at her and walked around behind her. He reached down and gently tugged at her bonds restraining her against the stump in the ground. He gently untied her hands. He brushed her fingers and she jumped a little at the contact. He could tell that she was obviously afraid of him. It seemed Kohr over exaggerated his abilities. But then again, sometimes he didn't know his own strength. He finally undid the last bond restricting her hands and she immediately pulled free, but she didn't run. Kirito took the rapier from Kohr's hands and handed it to Chelsea. She took it with a hesitant understanding as to what he was planning. She put it away in its sheath, and looked back up at him.

"I can obviously see that you have unresolved problems with the death of your friends, leading you to continue as an orange player. I believe that I can help you. Or, you can continue to follow your current trajectory as an orange player. It's your choice."

Kirito could see Chelsea thinking it over in her head, as she mulled about the pros and cons of working with him. Finally, she looked him square in the eye with no emotion present.

"I appreciate your offer to me Kirito, but I believe that I must follow my own path. And my own path will lead me to my redemption."

"Very well. If that is your decision, I will respect it. If you ever need my help with anything, send me a message"

Kirito opened his menu and touched a couple buttons. He saw Chelsea receive the message and accept it. A notification came up as Chelsea accepted his friend request. He looked at Kohr to do the same, but he declined with a red blush to his face and walked away. Kirito didn't see what the problem was, but didn't press it any further. He looked back at Chelsea and nodded. She looked at him with curiosity, and Kirito swore he saw her look over at Kohr, smile devilishly, and disappeared into the dark. Kirito turned to Kohr.

"Thanks for helping me get my sword back. I appreciate it."

"No problem. I know I didn't want to lose Besetzt. I would never be able to find another sword like this."

"Yeah, me either. I don't know what I would do if I lost my weapon. It's kind of become a part of me. Which reminds me; I've been meaning to ask; I've never seen a sword made out of a material like that. What is it?"

"Well, it's a polymorphic phenolphthalein carbonic based glass."

"...huh? I've never heard of a material like that."

"Well no shit! It's nothing but a transparent based material. However it took me a long time to find the materials."

"Where did you get them?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story, but I found a dungeon on the first floor in the middle of the field. I entered, and the monsters were stronger than the 8th floor. I managed to survive, and after defeating a special boss, I obtained this sword. I've had it ever since. After that, around the 25th floor, the materials to upgrade the sword were said to be obtainable from a high-level boss. I fought, won, and got the materials. Around the 50th floor, I found another boss about the same design, except his strength was ten-fold of the last boss. I faced him with difficulty, obviously won, and I got the materials to upgrade the sword to its maximum potential."

"And the glass-like material?"

"Found it at a hidden floor under the Town of Beginnings. It's what allows Besetzt to change color, and… well, let's just say that the boss I faced didn't just give me some materials. It gave me the unique skill you had the pleasure of facing."

"Whoa… wait. The hidden floor? What boss did you have to face?"

"It was a boss like the grim reaper, only he had an unknown level and unknown data and stats."

"No way... You defeated that boss all by yourself?!"

"Well, not exactly. I had a little help from some friends of mine. I got together a group of about 50 guys, all levels 80 and above, about a nine or ten months ago, and we all equipped as many buffing items and skills as we could handle. We had almost 40-50 buffs on our whole group. And then we just had at it. We had about 10 of the 50 stay back keep up our buffs. The rest of us continued hacking at him. I. The end, seven of us died, including two buffers. But it levelled all of us up almost 10 levels, making me level 100 by floor 74. At that time, I had heard of your escapades with the floor 74 boss, Gleam Eyes. I had also heard about your special skill, Dual-Wielding. An amazing skill, no doubt. Just like mine own. The Bastard sword skill."

"So then what exactly does your Bastard sword skill's ability do?"

"The Bastard sword skill allows me to switch between a two handed fighting style and a one handed fighting style mid battle, mid attack. This opens new possibilities to throw my opponents off balance and then strike quickly and harshly to knock them away, and to much more effectively block attacks and easily dodge. While my strength ascends to gloriously new heights, my speed suffers. However, when I change to a one handed style, my power from the two handed fighting style remains while the speed increases vastly. This combination allows me to reach new heights, statistically speaking, and allows me to use new skills, available only to me. Kind of like an OSS"

"That's amazing. It sounds similar to my dual-wielding skill."

"Yep. That's probably why both of us came to a draw during our duel."

"I agree. Hey! I have a great idea."

"What?"

"How far have you explored the Hollow Area?"

"Not too far. I've gone to the Ginriogia Void, and this area, the Sea of Trees, and that's about it. I never bothered with the others."

"Then how about, this. You and I can form a party, and explore the area even further. Maybe we'll run into Chelsea again, and she can join us. Huh?"

"Ummmmm… yeah… sounds great…"

Kirito opened up his menu and began pressing a couple buttons. He didn't understand why Kohr blushed and got nervous whenever they were around or mentioned Chelsea. Kirito shrugged it off as he saw a small window appear in front of Kohr. Kirito watched as Kohr excitedly pressed the agreement button and a notification icon popped up in front of Kirito.

'Attention: you have now a party with this person; Kohr.'

"Well, let's get going."

"Yeah... let's."

Kirito could've sworn that as they started walking, Kohr fist pumped and had a smile a mile wide.

(Author's Note)

This chapter might have been a little shorter than the others, but that's mainly due to no fight scenes in it, and a small character defining between the three. I want to have the next chapter finished by either tonight, or tomorrow, so expect it soon. As usual, please comment on anything you want. I accept and welcome all comments, and will respond to any questions or remarks you have. Thanks for taking the time to read my story, and I hope you will continue to find it interesting!

-Kohr


	5. Chapter 6

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter VI

Kohr

"Kohr, where are we going?"

"Don't worry Kirito. You're going to love this shop!"

"But what is it?! You haven't even given me a hint to where we're even going!"

"We're going to a blacksmith shop."

"What's so special about this shop? I could find plenty in the town, and I have a close personal friend who runs a really good shop."

"Oh. You haven't seen a blacksmith shop like his."

"Why? What does it look like?"

"You'll see."

Kohr picked up the pace and started walking faster. He turned the corner and broke into a run. He could hear Kirito panting behind him. Kohr slid around a corner and jumped over a crate in the middle of the street. He landed and kept running. He rounded another corner, slid under a cart, jumped up and kept going. He looked behind him and saw Kirito dodging around crates and carts. He turned forward again and saw a wall in his face. He quickly jumped and put his feet in front of him. He landed on the wall, pushed off into a back flip and landed right on top of Kirito.

"Owwwww..."

Kohr hauled himself to his feet and turned to look at Kirito. He looked at Kohr and shook his head, a huge footprint in his the middle of his face. Kohr couldn't help but laugh. He turned around and started up again.

"You better keep up or you're going to get lost!"

Kohr turned around and saw Kirito getting to his feet. Kohr ran through the back door of a shop and vaulted over a table before barging out the front door onto a populated street. He turned around and saw Kirito puffing through the door. He collapsed to the ground and looked up at Kohr.

"Can't quit now! We're almost there!"

Kohr took off again leaving Kirito grumbling and groaning at how much exercise Kohr was making him do. Kohr ran down the street dodging in between, sliding under, and launching himself over players and NPC's. He suddenly stopped in front of a store with the sign 'Brusque Works' hanging over the door. Kohr looked up at the sign as Kirito came sliding past him, colliding with a mountain of boxes and flipping over them, landing face first on the concrete. Kohr looked over at all the commotion and shook his head at Kirito.

"Alright. We're here."

"So I noticed after you suddenly stopped without warning."

"Don't you get sassy with me."

"Shut up."

"Moron."

"Baka."

"Fool."

"Nutcase."

"Beater."

"Retard."

"Over actor."

At that last one Kohr couldn't help but laugh at his own comment. He could see that Kirito had no idea why it was so funny, and he wasn't about to explain the movie Liar Liar to him. The door unexpectedly flung open smashing Kohr's face sending him flopping to the ground holding his nose.

"What the f%#k are you f%#king idiots doing?!"

"Sup Volkatz."

"I told you to stop calling me that. If you know who I am just call me Luke."

"I will when you stop calling me by my real name and start calling me by my game name!"

"Your name is the one your parents gave you. Just like how mine is Luke, yours is No-"

"THAT'S enough. Thank you for the speech 'mom', I appreciate the English lesson. Kirito, meet Volkatz. Age old friend, we've known each other IRL for 17 years he has been a plague to my life that whole time."

"Nice to see you too Noah."

"Shut up Luke."

Kohr grasped his friend's outstretched hand and the two exchanged a few words of greeting. Kirito cleared his throat and Kohr turned to look at him.

"Sorry. Volkatz, this is Kirito. He's a friend of the blacksmith, Lisbeth."

"No way! You're friends with Lisbeth?! That awesome! I really admire her work! Do you think you'd be able to talk to her about looking at some of my armor ideas-"

"Volkatz. I didn't bring him here for you to put together an appointment. I want you to help me with the materials I found in the Hollow Area. I would like to show Kirito the swords you've made for me in the past as well as the ones I helped bring back materials for."

Volkatz sighed heavily while he rolled his eyes like Kohr was ruining his life.

"Fine come on in."

Volkatz stepped into his shop and motioned for them to do the same. Kohr looked back at Kirito and smiled. He walked through the door he had walked through so many times before, and as he did, he heard a gasp from behind him. Kohr couldn't help but smile at how shocked Kirito was at his friend's assortment of gear and weapons and items. Kirito bounded around the room looking and marveling at all the different kinds of swords and gear. As he was staring at all the special gear on display, Kohr walked into a back room behind the counter. A set stairs leading to a half basement behind the shop overlooked the entire room. It was a small room, approximately 15 ft. on all walls. In one corner, a bed next to a refrigerator and a small dining table along with a miniature kitchen. In the other corner, a small door led to a bathroom, and on one side of the room was a big furnace for forging. In front of the furnace, several anvils of different size and materials were stationed. Inside one of the furnace fires was a sword of what looked like golden colors.

"Is that the dragon sword I gave you last week?"

"Yeah it is. It took me almost two whole days to prep the material for the forge, and the past couple days it has been burning in the furnace. It hasn't melted completely yet, but it's getting really close."

"Hey listen, Kirito out there was interested in my glass sword. I thought that if I gathered enough materials, you might know what sword would come out with a similar look."

"Alright. I'll do my best. Let's see what you got."

Kohr opened up his menu and clicked a couple buttons. He watched as a mountain of materials started forming over his friend. It just kept growing and growing and growing. It almost buried Volkatz when it finished growing and dropped on top of him. Volkatz pulled himself out of the pile.

"HOW THE GODDAMN HELL DID YOU GET SO MANY MATERIALS?!"

"Simple: I've been gone for almost a month, grinding monsters to get the materials. So, which do you need?"

"Well, I need to start off with 30 stream ores."

"Done."

"Next, 30 blue flare stones."

"Right here."

"5 translucent gems and 10 black formation stones."

"Lemme see... Yep!"

"Finally, one Chrome Dragon's Breath gem."

Kohr jumped into the pile searching for it. He started digging through when he saw a chrome like jewel.

"Is this it?"

"Holy crap! You actually have one! These are so rare I've only heard of them from the beta testers!"

"You. Are. Welcome. And as a bonus, if you can complete it today, alllllll these ores; yours.

"Seriously?! All of them?!"

"Yes."

"Hell, I'll finish it in an hour!"

Kohr touched his menu and all of the ores disappeared except for the ones in Volkatz's hands. Volkatz turned around and started melting the materials together. Kohr turned around and walked back up the stairs to the shop. Kirito was upstairs admiring a pair of greaves when he walked up to him.

"See anything you like, Kirito?"

"Yeah, I saw these gauntlets made of a sleek black, lightweight metal at the front. They looked really nice. I also saw a nice ring I'd like to get for Asuna."

"Great. Grab them and bring 'em to me."

Kirito disappeared behind the rows of weapons. Kohr looked into the back room and called out to Volkatz.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Sure. What's up?"

Volkatz started up the stairs towards his shop. He walked through the door and behind his counter. He looked as Kirito headed towards the counter with a handful of items. He had also grabbed a handful of high rarity potions. He dropped them all on the counter.

Volkatz rang up all the items and announced the price.

"That all amounts to about 12,500,000 col."

"Whoa... I don't know if I have that much."

"Don't worry Kirito. I got it."

"Wait, Kohr, you don't have to do that-"

"Yes I do. You saved Chelsea and myself. I owe you. If you weren't there, we would be dead right now."

"Well..."

Kohr pushed a button on his menu and all the items suddenly disappeared, and a payment menu appeared in front of Volkatz.

"Here."

Kohr sent all if the items he just bought to Kirito. 12 million col worth of items, all gone to his friend. Kohr smiled at Kirito and looked back at Volkatz. He nodded and left to go back to work. Volkatz closed the door behind him and left Kirito and Kohr together in his shop.

"Thank you Kohr."

"I'm the one who should be thanking you, Kirito. You jumped in when I tried to save Chelsea because I was being stupid, trying to impress her. My stupidity was going to get us killed. Thank you for stepping in."

"Well, I'm glad I could help you. I only did what most people would do."

"Yeah but you're not most people."

"And neither are you, Kohr."

Kirito and Kohr laughed for a minute before they stopped when they heard the back door open. Volkatz walked out with his hands behind his back. He nodded to Kohr.

"Alright. I have one more gift to you Kirito."

"And what's that?"

"A new sword."

Volkatz handed the sword to Kohr and Kohr in turn handed it to Kirito. The sword was a light blue translucent color with a golden hilt. On the connection between the hilt and the blade, a small jewel shone with a bright orange vibrancy. All three marveled at the sword for a moment before Kirito started swinging the sword before him.

"It's heavier than I imagined."

"Besetzt is so heavy it took me a week to finally swing it over my head."

Volkatz walked over to where Kirito was swinging. He stopped swinging when Volkatz came nearer.

"There's one more feature on this sword that Besetzt doesn't have, and I believe is the first sword of its kind in SAO."

Volkatz touched the orange jewel at the top of the hilt and the stepped back. The sword began to glow brighter until it was a solid white light. It suddenly started to get shorter. Then Kohr realized that it wasn't getting shorter, it looked like it was melting! But the sword wasn't actually melting; it was retracting into the hilt. When the light faded, nothing was left except a hilt without any blade.

"Now press the jewel again."

Kirito pushed the jewel and the room suddenly filled with light again, but they all kept their eyes on the sword. The blade suddenly extended from out of the hilt. It appeared in front of them so quickly it was startling.

"Whoa... This is incredible."

"Well Volkatz, you've really outdone yourself."

"Thanks Kohr. Also, I completed your Golden Age Dragon Sword. Here."

Volkatz handed Kohr the golden sword. Kohr marveled for a second and then sheathed the one-handed sword.

"Thank you Volkatz. Here's the compensation for both swords. And, as promised, all of the ores."

Kohr opened up his menu and punched a couple buttons. A mountain of materials appeared above Volkatz.

"No."

The mountain started growing.

"No no no."

Then the mountain dropped.

"NonononoNoNoNoNoNONONO!"

CRASH

Kohr looked at him as the mountain literally buried his friend again.

"GODDAMMIT NOAH!"

(Author's Note)

I hope you all liked this chapter, and some of the comic relief it provided. I was in the middle of listening to the movie Liar Liar while writing this, and when the bloopers for the movie came up in the credits, I couldn't help but making a reference to it. If you haven't seen Liar Liar, with Jim Carey, go buy it and watch it right now. It is a classic comedy that you won't find in today's movies. Anyways, please remember to comment, and tell me what you thought about the chapter. I want to send a shout out to my best friend, Luke, for letting me write him into my story and write in his characteristics IRL as well. As I am on a roll right now, chapter 7 will be out in the next day or so, so keep an eye out for that. If anybody wants to know what happened to chapter 5, request it in the comments below, and I will attach it to the end of chapter 10, as an extra. As for why I deleted it, you can find out when you read it. Thanks so much!

-Kohr


	6. Chapter 7

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter VII

Chelsea

Her head was pounding and her legs were burning. She couldn't remember the last time she took a break. All she could remember was the face of Kohr when she fell under the blow of the Blood Knight. His look of desperation and fury to save her. No one had ever had that type of care for her since her friends had died. And now, this guy who she barely knew just risked his life for her. Why? Because he fancied her. There was no doubt about it. But why? What did he see in her that he liked? All these things were buzzing around in Chelsea's head as she kept running. She had no idea where she was running to, but she just kept running. She soon came to a structure that looked similar to a temple, except most of it was in ruins. She stopped at the entrance and sat down on the steps. She closed her eyes as her breathing began returning to normal. She was used to running a lot, and she had no problem returning her breathing to normal, but her heart wouldn't stop pounding, the pulse vibrating in her head. Every time it pounded she thought of his name. Kohr. Kohr. Kohr. Kohr. Over and over and over again. It didn't stop pounding. She had never cared about anyone else in the past. So then why did she feel so connected to this warrior?

After she had left the two of them, she hid in the shadows, not making a sound, and followed them. What could she say? She was interested. Their weapons could definitely make a pretty penny, but it wasn't the weapons that caught her eye. It was both of their abilities to continue fighting, even in the face of death. She must've admired that in them. As she watched the two of them continue through the Hollow Area, she watched as a Blood Knight charged at them from afar. Both warriors took defensive stances, and as the Blood Knight neared, they both attacked with vigorous intent. The Knight had to have been almost 30 levels above them, because in almost an instant, one sword swing form the knight sent one of them to the ground. When the Knight raised his sword to stab him in the chest, Chelsea bolted. She had no idea what had possessed her to step in and save one of them from a blow, but all she knew was that she couldn't see either of the two get killed, so instead, she took the hit from the knight. Her health dropped to the yellow zone. She couldn't remember who she stepped in for, or what happened next, but all she remembered was the face of Kohr standing over her, with a look that made Chelsea blush, as if it was the first time someone had done something nice for her. Then she lost consciousness, and when she woke, she found herself in a secluded area of what had looked like a treehouse. She then remembered what had happened and bolted. Now she was running from nothing, and thinking about everything.

Chelsea was so distracted thinking about her escapade of the day, she failed to notice a goblin sneaking up behind her. He clubbed her in the back of head, dealing a decent amount of damage. Then, before she knew it, she was surrounded by almost 20 goblins. Chelsea unsheathed her rapier, and struck the goblins, one after the other. As each goblin fell, more came to take their place, until she was practically up against an army. Not the first time she had been in that situation, Chelsea used a dash skill straight up, and to the left, landing on the roof of the ruins. Chelsea dashed over all of the goblins, before she hit the ground running. She was on the move again, but this time, she decided to go back to the treehouse. She went back the way she had come, following her trail of broken sticks and trampled leaves in the woods. She had no idea that a figure was watching her from the canopy above.

Chelsea arrived at the treehouse in about five minutes. This time she had run full sprint, leaving her almost breathless when she arrived. She scrambled up the hidden ladder on the tree that blended in with the bark of the tree. The treehouse itself took up ninety percent of he leaves on the tree, as it was surrounded by only a thin layer, allowing the person inside to see out but a person outside not in. She crawled into the opening in the trunk and up through the floor. She opened the hatch and entered the room. She looked around and saw everything was still in the same condition she had left it. She walked into the room, but was stopped short when a trap exploded at her feet. When the dust in the room cleared, Chelsea tried to stand up, but she found she couldn't move. She was frozen in place. She realized that it was an entrance trap for anyone without authorization. She was paralyzed and she had no idea when it was going to wear off. She was about to call for help when she heard another person coming up the stairs.

"Please! Help me! I'm paralyzed!"

The person walking up the stairs came into view of Chelsea she realized that she had made a huge mistake. This person wasn't going to help her in the slightest. This person was dressed in head to toe in a gray overcoat with a hood to hide his face. Only his mouth showed and a scar ran from where his eye was to just below his lower lip on the left side. She recognized the attire immediately. He was a member of the group that attacked her party of friends a long time ago. She felt something deep within her bubble and rise to the surface. Anger, hatred, sorrow, regret, vengeance, fear. Feelings she had buried within herself a long time ago. She was frightened about what was going to happen next. Then, he spoke.

"It's been a long time, Chelsea."

"How do you know my name?"

"I have been watching you ever since you killed a party of my followers. I wanted you to feel the same suffering they did. The same hate I felt when my friends died, I wanted you to feel the same."

"But you already killed my only friends. I have no one left. So just kill me now."

"Tsk tsk tsk. I thought you knew better Chelsea. You are a very seductive person after all."

"What...?"

"The boy. Kirito. And his friend, Kohr. Yes... You know him. The one who fancies you. You've been thinking about him. I can tell it in your expressions. He's the only person who cares about you in that way. Kirito may think of you as a friend, but you know that Kohr likes you."

"No. No you're wrong. No one could ever like me."

"Ha! You're denial makes it all the more truthful. And so much more fun for me. Well, I'll see you around Chelsea. In the meantime, watch your back."

"Wait! I didn't catch your name you filthy maggot."

"My name? My name is PoH. Remember that."

"Wait! Why are you doing this? What do you have to gain from this?"

"Hahaha! The question isn't "why", kid; the question is "why not?""

And with that, he ducked out of the treehouse and disappeared. Chelsea's eyes darted around, looking for something or someone that would help her, but nothing. Five minutes passed. The paralysis was still in effect. 10 minutes later, Chelsea realized no one was coming. She sat there on the floor and started to cry. She cried and cried for almost 10 minutes before she heard footsteps on the ladder. Had he come back? Did he change his mind and wanted to kill her now? Why? Chelsea tried to move from her spot on the floor, but couldn't. She struggled and tried to roll away from the entrance. She managed to roll over and faced the wall opposite the entrance. She attempted to worm her way away, but firm hand grasped her collar from behind and pulled her up. She couldn't see who grabbed her, but she knew that they were far stronger than she was. Suddenly, her paralysis was removed. It hadn't depleted by itself. Someone had cured her. She slowly turned around to see who it was, and when she saw him, she broke down crying, and in her mind, she was actually happy to see Kohr.


	7. Chapter 8

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter VIII

Kirito

Kirito was standing guard at the bottom of the tree, making sure nobody came in or out. He had no idea what the problem was, or where they were. All he knew was that Kohr had suddenly got a notification on his menu and he dropped what he was doing and said they had to leave, and that it was an emergency. He heard a pair of steps walking down the trunk of the tree and he turned to face them. Kohr was walking down towards him

"Hey. Come on in. There's someone you need to speak to."

"Uh... Ok."

Kohr started back up the tree into the leaves. Kirito followed behind him, occasionally missing a step. He walked through the hatch to the treehouse. Kirito was amazed by the amount of things that were in here. It looked like an actual house someone could live in. But one thing caught his eye. In the corner of the room on a small brown sofa, was a girl. She was dressed in black and red clothes, with headphones draped over her soft red hair. The girl had obviously crying, because when she looked up to see Kirito walk inside, her eyes were as red as her hair, and as puffy as her headphones. Kohr walked over from where Kirito stood and sat down next to her. He reached an arm to wrap around her, before Kirito saw a flicker of hesitation in his eyes. He let his arm fall at his side and just sat with Chelsea. Kirito walked over to them, and stood in front of them.

"She said that she wandered back here and she was paralyzed. Most likely by one of my traps. That's when I received the notification that someone was in my house."

"So wait. This is your house?"

"Yes, and no."

"And the reason you ran off is because you got a notification saying that someone was in your house?"

"Yes."

Chelsea had stopped crying and sat up to face them.

"I got back here, and when I walked through the door, a puff of powder flew in my face, and before I knew it, I was paralyzed. I then heard someone walking through the door a couple minutes later, and I found it was the leader of Laughing Coffin."

"Wait... PoH was here?!"

"Yes. PoH was in my house."

"Wha...? Don't you have any other traps?!"

"Several. But he deactivated the ones he went through. Chelsea was lucky to just barely miss the poison trap on the steps, let along the monster house teleportation trap."

"Wait. Did I hit any traps?"

"Yes. After I deactivated it, of course. You would have never survived my plethora of traps. Chelsea made it through five of them before making it to the paralysis one."

"Holy hell! How many traps do you have in this house?!"

"Over 20."

"Oh my god."

"Anyway, continue Chelsea."

She partially grinned and rolled her eyes at the two of them. Kirito knew the scene must have been funny to her. It was good that she was no longer crying. Then her eyes turned stone cold as her mouth curled into a frown, looking like she was about to cry again.

"He threatened my life and those around me. Meaning that he knows you guys, and you're in danger around me."

"I do believe that I was in danger with Laughing Coffin long before I met you or Kohr. Being around you isn't going to make it any less easy."

"Well I'm not sure if that's for better or worse."

"Oh ha-ha. But I don't want to put anyone else in danger, because of my mistakes. You two should just leave. For both of your sakes."

"As… tempting as that sounds, we're not going anywhere. Right, Kohr?"

"Yeah. I'm not ever going to leave you. Now, if you two are done, we have a problem."

"What is it Kohr?"

"Well, not to freak either of you two out, but... the house is surrounded."

"What?!"

"Yeah..."

Kirito rushed over to the window and looked outside. Several groups of about four or five men were outside in grey hooded overcoats looking around the area, on all sides of the tree.

"Laughing Coffin*."

Chelsea sniffled and stood up, walking over to the window.

"Do you think they've seen us?"

"Not yet."

"How can you tell?"

"Because we're not dead yet."

"Well that's just wonderful."

"Kohr."

"Hm?"

"Do you have a back door to this place?"

"What kind of question is that? We're in a treehouse, dammit! There are no back doors in tree houses!"

"You know your attitude is not appreciated Kohr!"

"Eat a d#€k!"

"Kohr?"

"What Chelsea?"

"First; you can't do that in a video game. Second; shut up."

"Oh well aren't you a smart one!"

"Smarter than you at least."

"Can we FOCUS you two?!"

Kirito looked outside the window. The LC members were painstakingly close to the tree, and they weren't very patient people to wait around for Kirito, Kohr, and Chelsea to escape. He knew that firsthand.

"Kohr. Tell me you have some kind of escape plan?"

"Of course I do."

"Well then can we get moving? I'd rather not be around when they discover this place!"

"Kirito. Chelsea. Go over to the bookshelf. Pick up the Pokéball."

Kirito walked over to where he had told him.

"This?"

Kirito picked it up. The bookshelf started to shake the moment he picked it up. The bookshelf moved until there was a small hole, big enough for just one person to fit. He looked down and saw what looked like a slide. He pulled his head back out to look at Kohr.

"Where does this go to?"

His answer came when a boot kicked him from behind. Kirito fell face first into the hole, and with the wind whistling in his ears, he only heard snippets of Kohr yelling down to him.

"It's a small labyrinth that I dug about a month ago!"

He heard a thump of someone jumping in right after him, assuming it was Chelsea. He was sliding along in the dark for about fifteen seconds before he fell out of the slide and into a tunnel. He landed face first getting a mouthful of dirt.

"INCOMING!"

A body landed on top of Kirito, knocking the wind out of him and shoving his face into the dirt again.

"Hmmmhmfhmfhhmmmmmmmmmm!"

"I'm sorry, what? I don't speak dirt."

Kirito pushed her off of him and yelled at the top of his lungs.

"NEITHER DO I! AND I SAID; GET OFF OF ME!"

He sat up and saw a light above him. He looked over at the person who landed on top of him, seeing Chelsea's headphones lopsided on her head. She straightened them out and looked behind her. Kirito followed her gaze.

"Where's Kohr?"

"He should be coming right behind me."

A sudden explosion from above them rocked the whole tunnel. A cloud of dirt rained down from above.

"What the hell was that?!"

"I don't know, but we need to get out of here before this cave comes down on top of our heads. I don't care if Kohr dug these tunnels or not. I'm not sticking around to find out if they're sturdy."

Kirito turned and started running down the open tunnel. Explosions continued to rock the cave now and again, raining dirt down on top of them. Luckily for them, Kohr wasn't as stupid as he seemed. His elaborate "labyrinth" was nothing more than one straight hall, leading to a small opening in the ceiling. A small ladder was hanging from the opening in the ground above him. He turned and looked back at Chelsea.

"I guess this is our way out."

Kirito turned, grabbed the bottom of the rope ladder, and started climbing. He continued climbing for a little bit, before he saw rays of sunshine glowing through a small patch in the earth. Kirito pushed up against the patch of earth, but it didn't budge. He slammed his shoulder into it, and it suddenly burst open letting sunshine pour in. He crawled out of the hole and reached a hand back down and pulled Chelsea out. The hatch was cleverly designed to be thick enough where if someone stepped on it, it wouldn't make any noise, and it was well camouflaged with grass on the top. Kirito closed the hatch and looked down where it was. He couldn't even see where the handle was. He turned around towards the treehouse, and saw the ground around it was on fire, almost like a moat of fire. Concussive blasts of fire hit the ground and exploded every couple seconds, and one of the members of LC was running in circles screaming while his coat was on fire. Two more were trying to chop the tree down with an axe, but kept getting hit with explosive fire bombs from the tree. The others were standing there screaming like children watching a scary movie. The scene would have looked hysterical to Kirito if he didn't know they were trying to kill Kohr. He saw a figure through the leaves, moving around in the treehouse like a madman. Explosive bombs were now flying everywhere, fire raining down on them, and traps were going off like crazy on the ground where LC was standing. Chelsea made a move to run towards the house when Kirito stopped her and pulled her back. He pointed at two of the members of LC who were screaming earlier, but we're now headed straight for Kirito and Chelsea. Kirito pulled out his two swords while Chelsea unsheathed her rapier. Kirito looked at the two murderers, and charged them. And that was when the treehouse exploded into a fiery inferno.

(Author's Note)

This chapter was one of my favorites. I wanted to describe the treehouse more, but I feared it would stray too far from the realm of the story, so I decided against it. I did, however, create a short story involving it. I have added it to the end of this chapter, as an extra, so read it if you'd like. Other than that, nothing new. I will have the next chapter up in a few days. Maybe less this time. Anyway, Auf Wiedersehen meine freunden. Danke schon!

Treehouse Expansion

Kohr

Kohr looked at his friends as he dropped the crate of things he had been able to salvage from his first treehouse. Kirito, Volkatz, and Chelsea had agreed to help him remodel his new treehouse, since his old one had been destroyed in a Laughing Coffin raid. Volkatz had agreed to help, only because he had new designs for some new traps to add to Kohr's plethora. Kirito had agreed, because he wanted to see how many rare items Kohr had that he would put in his treehouse. Chelsea had only agreed to come along because she said that Kohr had " _a terrible sense of fashion."_ Kohr laughed when she had said that. Kohr looked over at Volkatz as he dropped the item he was carrying.

"Kohr? Where do you want the mini-fridge?"

"Just put it in the corner."

Earlier, Chelsea helped Kohr to pick out new furniture for his treehouse. And he had to admit, when she had him buy the burgundy red color, she was right to say that it went well with the brown, wood walls. As Kohr stood there, marveling at how well his new treehouse was coming along, he noticed the craftsmanship for the first time. He and Volkatz had designed the place as a small base of operations, and its design was truly ingenious. The structure was a generic semi-circle, with the wider end of the semi-circle split into two parts; one, a personal office, with a bookshelf that led to a lower tunnel below the tree, and the second part, an open kitchen area, complete with an oven, sink, counter, and refrigerator. The smaller half of the semi-circle was split into a living quarters on one side, with one bed and a bunk bed, and a dresser and curtain to give some privacy. The rest was the main room, with a small couch, and a 4 foot by 4 foot square table with chairs. The entire treehouse had a feel of safety to it, like if one were to walk into his own house, lie down on his bed, and read a book. It was the best feeling Kohr had had in a long time, and now he could share it with friends. Less than 15 minutes later, the treehouse was reassembled and looking good as new again.

"Hey, Kohr! Catch!

A pillow ripped through the air and impacted in Kohr's face. As he lowered the pillow, his gaze narrowed as he locked onto his target.

"This… means WAR!"

Kohr jumped into the air as Chelsea picked up another pillow and lowered herself into a striking stance. Mid-flight, Kohr was intercepted by a large couch cushion slamming into the side of his head. He careened off course and smashed into a pile of the empty boxes. Chelsea whipped her pillow at the man who threw the couch cushion, and with a whap, Volkatz was down for the count. While she was distracted, Kirito tackled Chelsea from behind, landing on the carpet with a flurry of hands and feet. Kohr hauled himself upright, and found an angry Volkatz picking himself off of the floor, and Chelsea laughing while wrestling Kirito. Kohr charged Volkatz and pushed him back on the ground, landing on the carpet and sliding all the way into the couch, knocking it over. The chairs and tables by now were flipped and on the ground due to Chelsea and Kirito's wrestling, and to resolve this conflict, Kohr turned 180° and immediately halted the wrestling with a strong arm to each being, throwing them across the room into different corners. Chelsea and Kirito both recovered and launched themselves at Kohr, and as Kohr ducked to avoid them, they both realized their mistake. After the two collided mid-air and Kohr stood up unharmed, he was tackled and sent over the side of the overturned couch by Volkatz. As Volkatz stood their claiming his glory, Chelsea sneaked up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and flipped him over her shoulder and onto his stomach. As she recovered, she found herself face to face with Kohr, who looked at her with a smile. He smiled as he went to give her a hug. She attempted to pick him up and do the same to him that she did to Volkatz, but he was far too heavy. Instead, she opted to just tripping him over. But before she could, Kohr flipped her head over heels (literally and figuratively) and onto her back, before leaning down and gently kissing her on the cheek. As Kohr stood up, he declared himself the winner, and looked around. Kirito was in the corner, slumped upside-down. Volkatz was crawling away from Chelsea, holding his back. And Chelsea was staring at the ceiling without blinking or moving an inch. Kohr immediately looked around and shouted at what he saw. Everything they had unpacked was completely overturned and strewn about. Kohr walked over to the fridge (which had somehow been turned on its side) and opened it up and grabbed what looked similar to an alcoholic beverage, popped it open, and took a swig, before looking long and hard at the mess his friends and he had made of his refurbished treehouse. Wrecked again. Time to start cleaning!


	8. Chapter 9

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter IX

Chelsea

The explosion from the treehouse shook the earth and threw Chelsea and Kirito to the ground. She looked over at Kirito in shock and risked a glance over towards the treehouse. The whole tree was on fire now, and while the members of LC were running away, the treehouse continued shooting flames out of the windows after them. Chelsea watched in horror as another explosion shook the earth and a plume of smoke rose into the air, filling it with digital Carbon monoxide. The trunk was burning fast. If they were to try and get Kohr out of there, it would have to be soon. REAL soon. She took off towards the treehouse, but an arm with inhuman strength grabbed her and held her back.

"Let go of me!"

"Wait Chelsea."

"Let go! We need to save him! He'll die. Do you really want him to die?!"

"No, but-"

"Then if you really cared at all about your friend, you would help."

"That's not the point-"

"Then what is?! Huh?! What's the problem?!"

"If you rush in there after him, you could die from the flames. I've never seen anything on fire in SAO before, so I have no idea what it will do to a player."

Chelsea turned and looked at the treehouse. She realized Kirito was right. If she ran in there after Kohr, she could die as well. But it was worth the risk. Chelsea elbowed Kirito, forcing him to let her go. She ran like the wind towards the treehouse, and climbed inside. Everything was burning, feeding the fire. Even though it was a game, Chelsea could feel the heat radiating from the fire. The hair on her arms were beginning to singe. She had to find Kohr and get out of there. Fast. She spotted him at a large ballistae-like weapon, rotating a lever and shooting storms of fire at the members of Laughing Coffin through the window. As Chelsea approached Kohr, she rested her hand on his shoulder. He jumped and grabbed her hand in a death grip while reaching for his sword. She looked into his eyes as he saw it was her, and he smiled.

"I think I got them all!"

And with that, Kohr slumped to the floor, unconscious. Chelsea's lungs were beginning to burn when she began hauling Kohr towards the exit. The flames licked at the ceiling of the treehouse and at the heels of Chelsea. As she approached the hatch in the floor, a burning piece of wood fell from the ceiling right on top of the hatch. Chelsea looked up and cursed. Kayaba must want her dead. She looked around, seeing nothing but flames, and was beginning to think she was doomed. But then she remembered the bookshelf she had went through to escape the first time. She dragged Kohr towards the bookshelf pushed the Pokeball, and practically threw Kohr down the slide. She turned and looked at his beloved treehouse, before an explosion in front of her slammed her through the hole and down the slide. The bright light from the burning flames died in the coldness of the ground she was travelling through, until Chelsea hit the bottom. Kohr was only a few inches from her. She placed her hand into his.

"I'll never leave you…"

Chelsea ran along the passage and popped up at the hatch near where Kirito was still standing. She flagged him down and had him help her haul Kohr out of the hole. When they laid Kohr down on the grass, his health was in the red zone. Chelsea's was a t the halfway point. The fire was a huge problem. Whatever caused it could not be done again. Chelsea used a healing crystal and completely restored Kohr's health. Minutes later, Kohr sat up, a grim look on his countenance. He glanced at Kirito, to the remains of his treehouse, and then to Chelsea. He wrapped his arm around her and hugged her tightly.

"And I won't ever leave you, either…"

At this, Chelsea started sobbing. Half laughing, half crying with her tears and laughs causing hiccups and sputtering. After she had calmed down, Chelsea's emotions turned from pain, sorrow, and relief, to anger and frustration.

"What the hell?! What just happened out there? Where did the fireballs come from? And why didn't you tell us what you were going to do? We could've helped!"

"First, thank you for saving me Chelsea. Secondly, the tree house caught on fire from a rotating fire-ball ballistae Volkatz made for me, as a defense mechanism for the tree house. Somehow, Laughing Coffin found the cord in the trunk of the tree and destroyed it, creating a back-up of Cesium in the Argon based tube it was stored in, causing an explosion of 200mg of Cesium."

"…WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"What? What is it Kirito?

"YOU USED CESIUM?!"

"Yeeeeesssss….?

"Jeez. My other question is how were you able to make a gun in this game?"

"Well, it's not exactly a gun. It's more of a high powered rotating crossbow launcher. Except instead of launching common arrows, it launches custom made fire imbued arrows that explode on impact. It works sort of like a Gatling gun. It fires one, rotates, fires another, and repeats over and over. There are twelve rounds in a single rotation before reloading. It WAS my favorite defense mechanism, until it was destroyed."

"Well, time to contact Volkatz. I need to change my mailing address"

"Wait, why do you need to change your…mailing address?"

"Because now that Laughing Coffin knows that this existed here, I can't risk building another. PoH got past my traps once. Who's to say he can't do it again? The safest thing to do is to move my base of operations. In the meantime, while I contact Volkatz, who's thirsty?"

Kohr walked over to the ruins and opened his refrigerator, which was surprisingly intact, and looked inside.

"I've got soda, beer, and Hetap."

"Isn't it a little early to start drinking?"

"Hey, 5:00 was 20 hours ago!"

Chelsea grabbed a beer and downed it in almost one chug. She grabbed another and popped open the lid and downed it as well. She popped open a third one before realizing he boys were both staring at her.

"What?"

"You just drank two 16 ounce beers in under ten seconds."

"Yeah, so what?"

"WHERE THE HELL DO YOU LEARN THESE THINGS?!"

"Same place you go to learn your manners."

"Ohhhhhhhh!"

Kohr tuned and glared at Kirito.

"Sorry. That was pretty good though."

"Shut the hell up. You don't know anything. You dual wielding prick."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Excuse me what was that?"

"I said you don't know anything, you dual wielding prick!"

"Are we really doing this right now?"

"Come on solo-snob."

"Do you really want to get beat again?"

"Please! You did not beat me! I had you from the beginning. You didn't stand a chance against my Bastard sword skill."

"I'm pretty sure my speed with the two handed sword skill would dominate you in an instant."

"That's not what happened earlier."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really?!"

"Really!"

"Stop it you two! You're acting like children!"

Chelsea stepped in between the two and got hit with attacks from either side. They both stopped their skill and immediately asked if she was ok. She stood up with a fire in her eyes.

"Game over."

"Uhhh... Chelsea? Are you ok?"

"You will burn in hell you big headed single minded corpse of a pea brained idiot!"

"Oh that's it. You're going down now."

"Bring it on fish face!"

"Hey guys!"

"Oh great and now the woman's here!"

"Did you just call me a woman Kohr?"

"Yes Volkatz. Would you like to help me kill Kirito?"

"Wait why me?!"

"Because you called me an idiot!"

"I did not!"

"Did you just call me a WOMAN?!"

"YES VOLKATZ! GET OVER IT! NOW WOULD PLEASE HELP ME KILL KIRITO?!"

"Go to hell!"

"Same to you!"

"Die Kohr!"

"Shut it Kirito!"

"Chelsea! Tag team!"

"F# k you!"

"What a big fat help you are!"

"Kill him!"

"Die!"

"F# k you!"

"Get her!"

"RAAAAHHHHHH!"

(Author's Note)

Shout out to Omega Alpha Hydra for being the first to comment! Thanks so much! I really love hearing people's reactions and thoughts about my stories. It's kind of what I live for; reactions. Anyways, as always, comment, share with friends if you liked the story, and if possible, enjoy it? Just kidding. Chapter 10 will be out soon. Can't promise it will be today or tomorrow, (due to Homecoming) but I can assure you that it will be out much sooner, and with Chapter 5 attached just for you! (Thanks Omega Alpha Hydra!) Lastly, if the dialogue is a bit confusing to you, then it's ok. I made it where you either have to keep track in your head and go back once you get the order right, or just make a list! Either way, I hoped the story would be more challenging than just any other story one can read out on FanFiction. So thanks, and I'll post the next Chapter soon!

Kohr


	9. Chapter 10

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter X

Kohr

Kohr was lying on the floor of his treehouse, broken glass and torn books and other miscellaneous items strewn across the floor. He was on his back looking up at the ceiling when he heard a groan come from his left. He turned to look at Volkatz laying on the ground face first.

"Ow. My face hurts."

"Shut up you moron. We're all in pain."

"Go f# k yourself, Kohr."

"Hahaha... Ohhhh it hurts to laugh."

"Ha! Hahahahah... Shit that hurts."

"No shit Sherlock!"

"Who's Sherlock?"

"Shut it Kirito."

Kohr hauled himself to his feet and looked around. Volkatz was on the ground to his left, underneath a pile of rubble that looked like what was left of a bookshelf, now splintered and charred, strewn across the ground. To his right he saw Kirito with both swords next to his hands, glass all around him, and some armor pieces around him as well. Behind Kohr, Chelsea lay unconscious surrounded by her armor, her rapier, and of course, several cans of beer. Kohr chuckled to himself and immediately clutched his side. His rib cage throbbed in pain. He was hit pretty hard by Volkatz's hammer. He immediately regretted his decision to stand up, but continued limping across the grass to where his sword was. He had thrown it to try and nail Kirito down, but instead succeeded in breaking what was left of the refrigerator. Broken bottles flickered and turned into a thousand shining pieces. He cursed his stupidity. He picked up his sword and almost dropped it. It felt heavy as hell! He dragged it across the ground and set it next charred trunk of the tree. He looked around and started to gather up armor, ores, and weapons. As he continued to pick up after the mayhem, he heard a groan from behind him and looked around to see Volkatz walking towards him.

"You ok, Noah?"

"I've told you plenty of times Volkatz. My name is Kohr."

"And I've told YOU plenty of times. My real name is Luke. And you know it so call me it!"

"You chose that name when you entered this game, so that's your own damn fault."

"Anyway, do you need any help cleaning up?"

"Yeah, could clean up the grass? It needs to be mowed, it could use some grass seed. Oh, and a fire extinguisher would help."

"Hey, I didn't ask for any of the sass, Noah."

"And I don't think that there's any reason to clean up the mess here. The only thing we really need to do is gather up anything that survived."

Kohr turned and picked up his favorite armor and put it back in his inventory.

"Hey Noah?"

"Yeah Volkatz?"

"What's the story behind that armor?"

"I originally had a black and white set of armor since floor one of this death trap. It got me all the way up to floor 36 without a problem. I didn't have to change it until I was thrown into the Hollow Area. I then realized that it wasn't going to be enough. I finally found this armor after defeating a level 120 boss while I was still only level 72. I almost died. But it was worth it. I haven't had to change it since."

"So that's why you never came to about armor."

"That and you suck at making armor anyway."

"You take that back! I've definitely improved enough to beat that shit you wear!"

"Really? This shit? Here. Look at the stats and tell me you can beat this."

Kohr handed his armor armor to Volkatz. Volkatz took the red and silver lined armor and checked the stats. Kohr saw Volkatz's face pale when he saw the stats.

"No wonder you never had any trouble with Kirito in his battle. That also explains why our duel score still remains at 47:50."

"Uh...no. It's at 46:50. That time when the elder dragon beast knocked me out did not count."

"Yes it does! I was kicking your butt until the dragon interrupted!"

"No you weren't! That's total bullshit! You cheated when I disarmed you!"

"There were no rules as to running and outsmarting you in nature."

"This is a video game! It isn't even real nature! And besides, you ignored the rules of engagement in a fair fight!"

"Well what was I supposed to do?! Lose?!"

"Yes!"

"I don't think so!"

"That would have at least been the humble thing to do!"

"It's a freaking game for god's sake! There is no humility involved! Especially in this death trap!"

"It's a gamer's code, Volkatz!"

"What code?!"

"The gamer's!"

"Who's the gamer?!"

"Us!"

"We're not gamer's."

"OH MY GOD!"

"Hey, calm down you two."

"Nobody asked for your opinion, Kirito!"

"Yeah, but you two are acting like kids."

"Better than acting like a dual wielding know-it-all like someone we all know!"

"Are we really going to start this again?!"

"Kohr!"

"What Volkatz?!"

"Shouldn't we execute protocol 39 right now?"

"To hell with protocol! I'm going to kill him!"

"But Kohr, if you kill him, whose going to help you get rid of PoH? Neither Chelsea nor I are strong enough to do it with you alone."

"Shit."

Kohr backed down and began gathering all of the remnants of his treehouse again. Kohr instructed everyone to grab all of their items and stage them next to trunk of what was left of the tree. Finallly, he sent a coded message to a player that didn't exist, which in turn activated several failsafe protocols to begin staging his backup home in the Hollow Area, to prepare itself for Kohr's arrival. (And also to rid itself of any monsters that had decided to make a home there)

"Alright, guys. Because my treehouse is now destroyed, I have no choice but to move our little operation into the safest place I know of. It will have everything we require; including sleeping arrangements, a place to make weapons, food, and even a small surprise for Kirito. And maybe even a wardrobe or two for you, Chelsea. We'll see."

At this, Chelsea's eyes lit up brighter than a dying star. She was practically jumping out of her boots when Kohr mentioned a wardrobe. Which, at this point, was understandable, because they had been cooped up in one place for a while, without any way to bathe or clean themselves.

"Hey, Kohr?"

"Yes, Kirito?"

"Where, may I ask, is this base of operations that you have so diligently described to us?"

"Well, if you must know, our new base of operations resides in the Ginriogia Void at the bottom of the pit."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope! Let's go!"

"Goddammit."

(Author's Note)

And the plot thickens! I have a fun little plan in store for Kohr and Kirito, and even a little surprise for Volkatz. (HINT: He gets and upgrade from just a hammer) In the mean-time, like promised, attached are the remnants of Chapter 5! Unfortunately, I could not find the Chapter in its entirety, so I managed to find a couple chunks and pieces. As for why I deleted the Chapter in the first place, I felt as though the Chapter employed too many extra possibilities. It was also a mundane talk Chapter between Kirito and Kohr, and then a short battle sequence, followed by what any author might use as the plot for a rape. Not what I wanted. So instead, I just made Chapter 5 disappear, only to give it to you as an extra. Enjoy!

-So this was small talk between Kirito and Kohr about 'Love'. If you don't figure it out, the love expert is Klein.

"Hey Kirito?"

*sigh*

"Yes, Kohr?"

"Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"Shoot."

"Do you think I have a chance with Chelsea?"

"I-I'm not sure what you mean."

"What I mean is; do you think Chelsea likes me?"

"W-well, it's hard to say right now..."

"Do you think she would ever like me?"

"Ummm... I can't tell."

"Kirito, have you ever been in love?"

"Ha! I _am_ married."

"Wait what?"

"Yeah. I'm married to Asuna. And boy, whenever I see her, I feel like I'm in a dream."

"Are you telling me that you married the Lightning Flash Asuna?!"

"That is correct."

"Dude! That makes you an expert on love!"

"Ummmm... No, I don't think it does. However, I do believe that I know someone who is a love expert."

"Who?"

"Well, I guess I'll just have to take you to them later."

"Alright, as long as they give me better advice than you did. You're worthless."

"Hey!"

"It's ok! I'm just saying that you are utterly oblivious when it comes to the complications that encompass humans of the opposite sex."

"You know, just because you're older than me and think you're smarter, doesn't mean I don't hear and understand what you say."

"Then it's a good thing I didn't say anything out of the ordinary about you."

"Why did I even invite you to party up with me?"

"Because I make everyone's life interesting and much less mundane."

"IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!"

"Ah-"

"NO!"

-This last part that I recovered was the next scene, intending to be a scene where Chelsea had been stalking them for a while, and then ended up helping, but not helping at all.

As Kirito and Kohr came through the brush, they had no idea that Chelsea was watching them. She laughed at how stupid they were to leave themselves wide open for a sneak attack. They marched on ahead of her, and as they disappeared from her line of vision, she dashed off between the shadows of the bushes and the trees, keeping a sharp eye for where they were. Chelsea followed them both for almost 10 minutes, and decided that she had paced them long enough. Chelsea drew her rapier from her waist, and began to advance on the two warriors until Kirito shushed Kohr. Chelsea stopped and remained absolutely still as The Black Swordsman looked around. Chelsea cursed as she thought he heard her approach, until she realized that he was looking in her direction. Something was in front of them. Something powerful. Chelsea wondered to herself what was going on with him, until she heard an ungodly guttural roar erupt from the brush in front of the two, and a Named Monster burst forth from its hiding place, mere inches from where they were standing. Chelsea watched, struck with awe and terror, as the two warriors duked it out with the murdering machine. The NM slashed and hacked, but as the Black Swordsman retaliated at his heels, whirling about with inhuman speed and reaction timing, the one called Kohr blocked the NM's attacks with nothing but his gauntlets. The almost childish aura that Kohr had emitted less than five minutes ago, paled in comparison with the insurmountable power he radiated. His face was stoic, and his arms did not budge when the sword was brought down against his gauntlets. He was like a god from above. Chelsea was so caught up in watching the two of them fight, she let down her guard and allowed a second Named Monster to sneak up behind her. The first blow knocked her feet out from under her, literally kicking her up into the air. The second blow slammed into her temple and sent her flying into the center of attention, both literally and figuratively. Kohr lost his concentration and momentarily lapsed, allowing the NM to strike him in the ribs, sending him into the brush. Chelsea curled up on the ground, waiting for the monster's claws to sink into her, but looked up when the attack never came. The Black Swordsman had intercepted the monsters claws with his swords, parrying and stunning the beast. Chelsea watched in awe as the swordsman continued to defend her, without realizing that the second NM was behind her. She turned at the sound of its roar, only to find a translucent blade from a two handed sword sunk deep into the maw of the creature. It fell to the ground with a thud, and Kohr retrieved his blade from its jaw. Kirito parried the monster in front of him, before yelling switch and letting Kohr jump in to finish the job. The monster wailed as the sword sunk itself into its second victim, and leaving no trace of it afterwards. When Chelsea was satisfied that the monsters were both dead, she turned, looked at the two warriors, and for the second time that day, she blacked out.


	10. Chapter 11

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter XI

Kirito

The four of them had been walking for what seemed like forever, and it was already turning night time in game. Kirito wanted to strangle Kohr for choosing this place for his other operation base. Why did he have to pick the place farthest from the other one? It was absolute madness! But he was just happy that they at least had a place to go after the last base was compromised, because Kirito was not about to abandon his friends. He was sad though that all of the cool gadgets and tricks of the other one were now gone, and he was sure Kohr felt the same way. Kirito was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that the parade had stopped in front of him. He ran into the back of Chelsea, who ran into the back of Volkatz, who in turn ran into Kohr, who didn't budge an inch. Typical. But the reason that they had stopped was incredible. In front of the group was an endless pit that had nothing to indicate a bottom. For all Kirito knew, the pit led to a teleportation device outside of the Hollow Area. Kirito had been there once, when he was exploring with Philia. But they had gone inside of the mountain to find ruins. However, Kohr did not have any intention of doing this. Instead, he grabbed hold of Chelsea, lifted her into a bridal carry stance, and jumped over the edge. Kirito stood there in awe. Volkatz was definitely stronger than he looked, because he picked Kirito up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and jumped. On the way down, Kirito's life flashed before him faster than the speed stats of Asuna. Suddenly, it was over. Volkatz dashed sideways, halting their momentum from carrying them into the ground. He landed on a ledge, in close proximity to where they had jumped. In front of them, two solid steel doors about the size of boss room doors. Kohr opened his menu and consumed a key titled "Key of Xur", whatever Xur was. The doors opened with a loud and obnoxious creek, and inside, was a miniature fortress built into the ruins of the technological marvel of the Void. Kirito followed after Kohr as they walked through the open door and into the "house". Inside was a long hallway with no doors that led into darkness. He started walking forward when he was stopped by Kohr. He pointed ahead and Kirito saw over 50 blinking lights in the dark.

"System command. ID Kohr Benet Rain. Deactivate traps!"

The lights immediately turned on, and when Kirito saw at least one or two traps for every blinking light he almost fainted.

"Kohr, do you have a fetish for traps?"

"Shut up Kirito. Besides I bet if all of your trademark hiding spots and level grinding area locations were all here with other precious info, I think you would want to protect it to."

"I guess..."

"Don't get lost in here. It's filled with mazes of halls. While it's not a dungeon, it's very easy to get lost in here. Volkatz!"

"What?!"

"Pay attention."

"You're not my mom, Noah. And I didn't know you had a full name for your character."

"And I didn't know you were such a bitch. Seriously! Pay attention! I'm not going to babysit you like a child. Come on."

Kirito chuckled under his breath at the two bickering back and forth. He recognized that they obviously had a strong bond in both the game and IRL. Kirito followed behind them with Chelsea on his heels. They were both in awe as they walked through the endless halls. Chelsea hadn't said a word since the big fight at the original base, and Kirito was about to ask we what was wrong, when he ran into the back of Kohr again. He looked around his bulky armor and his jaw dropped. In front of them was a true base of operations. In the center of the room was a console. An admin console. Kirito had no idea how it got there. He looked around and saw a fridge, a door leading to several bedrooms, and a kitchen, a forge room, a sparring room, and several monitors above the console with videos of the entrance, the rooms, and many extra places that Kirito didn't know where they were. Kohr turned around and looked at them.

"Welcome to your new temporary home. For Kirito, a fully functional sparring and training room to hone your skills. For Volkatz, a forge room with rare and ultra-rare materials to try out new combinations and a direct connection to you shop on floor 76 and some new ideas for you in there as well. I designed some of them off of the bosses and Named Monsters I've fought in the past. And for Chelsea, a new room that I designed for myself, but you can use instead. It's a room that can hone special skills, as well as complete high level hollow missions without leaving the fort. And it comes complete with a ginormous closet full of clothes."

"Hey Kohr?"

"Yes Kirito?"

"Where did you get the console from?"

"This console was here when I found it. I decided to make this my ultimate base, built right around it. This whole area was once a dungeon until I found this and changed it into a building."

"So in other words, you hacked the system."

"I like to think of it as, survival of the fittest."

"A nice philosophy, but I don't think it applies to this situation."

"But it does. I altered my surroundings using my knowledge of the system to ensure my survival as well as the survival of others. Therefore, the phrase fits into this situation perfectly."

"Whatever. Hey. Where'd Volkatz and Chelsea go off to?"

Kirito looked around and saw Chelsea working out in the specialty training room and Volkatz banging away at the forge with his newfound materials. Kirito saw Kohr walk towards the console and sit down in front of it and power it up. He typed in a couple algorithms and Kirito felt a rumble in the structure of the building. He looked up at the monitor of the front of the building and saw that the door in front had closed itself and was blocking the entrance again. Kirito saw Kohr going through all of the other monitors showing places in hidden areas.

"What are all these other monitors Kohr?"

"These are all of my hideouts that I keep secret. But if you would like to know, I'd be happy to share some of them with you?"

"No that's alright. I have my own secret hideouts that I don't share with anyone else. I'd like to keep them that way. I'm sure you'd like to as well."

"You are a true gamer Kirito. Truly amazing."

"Thank you. I think?"

"Well, would you like I spar with me for a little bit?"

"I'd love to have a rematch."

"Alright, let's go."

Kirito followed Kohr into the sparring room and pulled out his two swords. He watched Kohr activate the system and the whole room changed to a grassy area in the daytime with an old bridge in the background, their sparring area surrounded by large boulders.

"Look familiar, Kirito?"

"Yeah. This is the place we first met."

"Yep. Are you ready?"

"Bring it on."

"Alright. Basic duel rules. First player to half health loses. No items, no changing weapons, and no buff skills. Ready?"

"Yes!"

"Alright! Go!"

Kirito immediately activated a sword skill and launched himself at Kohr with unparalleled reaction timing. He was determined to win this time. He had been following Kohr for a little while now and felt he understood his fighting style. He had this in the bag. He struck Kohr in the midsection, landing a direct hit. He followed it up by swinging his sword in the opposite direction, slicing into his midsection a second time. Then he continued by spinning around to the other side of Kohr, and finished the attack with two more hits, completing the Horizontal Square skill. He looked at Kohr's health but was surprised to see that his health only depleted by a sliver overall. Kirito jumped backwards right before Kohr swung his sword, almost landing a critical blow. Kirito realized that this battle couldn't be won by strength alone. His opponent's defense was too high. He had to do this with speed. He struck Kohr with another sword skill and immediately vaulted himself backwards after landing a blow, quickly dodging his opponent. He landed hit after hit until his opponent was almost down to half health. He was almost there. And he hadn't even lost any health yet. Kirito was confident. He launched one more attack to try and get his health down enough where he could finish it with Starburst Stream. He activated his skill, but before he could execute it, Kohr ran right up to him and knocked him on the ground. Kirito looked up to see a sword coming down on his head. He reacted by rolling to the left, missing the attack by a hair. He activated his skill one more time, attempting it again. But this time, he was interrupted not by Kohr, but by no Kohr. His opponent was gone! He stopped the progression of his sword skill and looked around. He couldn't see anything. He looked around a bit more before he heard something behind him. He turned around just in time to see a sword that was glowing with an all-black luminescence swinging towards his head. He dodged it quickly and the sword crashed to the ground. He looked up to see that the darkness was flowing into the ground below Kohr. The earth started rumbling and the ground split open and several skeleton warriors crawled their way out.

"Hey! We said no assisting!"

"This isn't. It's my sword's ability. It allows me to summon up to three enemies that I have encountered in the past, with only one catch. I have to have defeated them. But it's still my favorite skill."

"That's bullshit."

"Enough talk. Fight time now!"

Kohr pointed his sword at Kirito, and the three skeletons charged. However, Kirito knew that if he could take out Kohr, the skeletons would go away. Kirito charged him, vaulting over the skeletons. But Kohr was ready. Kirito had no way to dodge in midair, and Kohr used his ultimate skill, sealing his victory. His sword slashed through Kirito once. Twice. Three times. Over and over until the alarm buzzed signaling that the match was over. Kohr had won. Kirito looked up in defeat at his opponent. He stood up with a bright fire blazing in his eyes. He would be ready next time. Next time, he would win. No. He would dominate the match. Next time.

(Author's note)

Hey guys! This is a great chapter in my opinion, but then again, they're my chapters anyway. This is another of my favorites, because it elaborates on the abilities of Kohr's sword. His ultimate skill is just the basic ultimate skill from the video game Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. To clarify, however, Kohr has a special sword. Its ability allows it to summon up to three minions the user has defeated in the past. Then Kohr has his ultimate skill, a two handed skill with insane power. And finally, he has a Unique Skill called the Bastard Sword skill. It allows him to switch between one handed and two handed skills, for insane combinations of skill activation timing and skill strength. Anyway, thanks for reading, and following this chapter is a short story I wrote about what Kohr's first day in the game of SAO was like. Enjoy!

Day 1

This time, I decided not to let the narrator do this, and I thought, why don't I do a story for a change. And so, here we are. By the way, I'm Kohr. Or my real name is Noah. You know what's funny? The writer and I am the same person. Except I'm cooler. No. I'm Freezer. No, Ice cold. Wait. That's his father. Ah, fuck it! Roll with it!

Most people when they look into the eyes of death, they see nothing, and everything. They see their lives flash before their eyes, and suddenly, it just erases itself, as it was never there to begin with. And now, you're left wondering whether any of it was truly real or not.

Well we have an old saying we always used in high school: Fuck that.

Kayaba Akihiko. He is the creator of SAO, the death game that ended so many valuable lives. My parents used to tell me that I had an addiction to video games. Now, I turned my addiction, into a career. Every day, I investigate and observe video games to determine the structural composition of the game's CPU system. And when the new VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, was released, my boss saw fit to give me the job of close observation of the new system's CPU. And then, the nightmare began.

The Town of Beginnings was the starting point for everyone. However, before I even bought good armor and a weapon from the town shops, I was already on my way to the second town on the floor. I was halfway to the second town, and in the middle of cutting down a wild boar, when my hands began to glow. It enveloped my whole body, as a bell began tolling, and I was teleported in mid swing of my sword.

I reappeared in the Town Square, and finished my sword swing, slicing into someone who was unfortunately in the way. The sword stuck in his stomach, but because the town was surrounded by a safe zone, it did no damage to him. It did however; get him to punch me in the face. I was sent tumbling backwards into a pillar, knocking over several people along the way.

I sat up, rubbing my face, when a shadow passed in front of me. I instinctively reached for my sword, when I realized the town was a safe zone; I can't hurt anybody, and they can't hurt me. I looked up at the figure standing in front of me, and when I recognized who the shadow belonged to, a huge smile spread across my face.

It was my friend, Luke. Although in game, his character name was Volkatz. He reached down and grasped my outstretched hand, lifting me up to my feet. I shook his hand, happy to see him again. Last I saw Luke, he had just been given permission from his boss to take a 6 month trip to Japan, to study the newest games, manga, and anime.

See, Luke is an artist. Not the kind of artist like Van Gogh, or Picasso, (although I always told him he was better than Picasso) but he's a graphic artist. He was in SAO to study the design of the game, and to use those designs in his next project. Similarly, I was in the game for work purposes as well.

As Luke and I exchanged greetings, the sky began to fill with one word: "Warning". I looked up as a figure appeared about 10 stories tall. As the figure explained that he was Kayaba Akihiko, and that it was now officially impossible to log out of SAO, I looked at Luke. He and I exchanged a silent conversation, about what our next move was going to be. He told me he was going to stay in the city as a blacksmith, to help other players. I told him my plan to continue my path to the second city en-route to the dungeon. He bade me good luck, and as Kayaba disappeared, I turned and ran for the exit of the town.

As I was running through the deserted streets, I could hear mass hysteria behind me, as 10,000 people just erupted into chaos, and I swore I saw a couple people run by, headed down other alleys, heading the same way I was. At one point, I saw a small kid in all black turn a corner and run down the street in front of me. Then, just as soon as he was there, he turned down another street and was gone. I continued running the way I was heading before the teleport, and almost immediately found myself at an open field.

The moment I stepped into the field and out of the safe zone, a pack of wolves ambushed me from all sides. While I loved fighting against groups to gain extra XP, I was never good with one handed swords. But I wasted no time in destroying them all. I vaulted behind one of the wolves, and with a single sword skill, I killed the wolf with no difficulty. I quickly move on to the next wolf, and finished him off with a couple quick slashes of my sword. I had just enough SP left for two more sword skills, and it took about 60 seconds to restore enough SP for one sword skill.

As I advanced, the remaining four wolves got smart and grouped up to take me on together. That was their fatal mistake. I had spent most of my time that morning levelling up my skills to get the first AoE skill for a one handed sword. I activated the skill, letting the game assist take over my arm. It almost felt as though some other force was guiding my arm as if it had done it a million times before. The sword glowed orange as the system enhanced the speed and power of my sword's strike, and my body followed as the sword as my arm rotated, slicing through every wolf in front of me.

The monsters immediately disintegrated into nothing but data that would spawn later for other players. I turned and ran towards the city in the distance, keeping my sword out to defend against any threats that might arise.

As I continued my journey across the plains, I saw a small cave, about the size of a small car, off to my right in the middle of the field. While I may not have been a Beta Tester, my boss made it a point to have me learn all of the things I possibly could about all the floors the beta testers made it to, and all of the quests and locations. And through all of that knowledge, this cave was not part of it.

Because I was soon over taken by curiosity, I marched towards the cave, but with a cautious element to my approach. As I walked into the cave, I noticed there was a small crevice in the corner that led to a larger cave beneath me. I looked down the hole, and decided to explore.

The hole was my worst nightmare come to life. Monsters three times my level with equipment found only on the double digit floors littered the cave. I didn't even know how I was going to survive, until I realized that survival was impossible after finding that it wasn't just a cave, but an elaborate labyrinth, filled with traps of poison, pitfalls, and monster spawns, as well as monster houses throughout the system of caves. After about an hour of travelling, my health had dropped below the yellow and into the red zone, and I used my penultimate potion. I now had only one left. Luckily, I had levelled up enough to take on most monsters in the labyrinth, no problem. Until I found a dark room at the 10th level underground. It was pitch black, except for a few torches that littered the walls, providing just enough light to see where I was walking, but not enough to make out distinct figures. As I approached the center of the room, I knew enough about games to pause and use my last potion, to bring my health up to 100%. And then I heard the most unsettling sound ever.

At first, it started like heels dragging across the floor. Then it turned into nails on a chalkboard. Then it escalated to metal screeching upon metal, and soon it grew to a knife dragging across a concrete surface, but the terror it bestowed upon my body was ten times worse. And then, it stopped, and for a moment I felt relieved that it was gone. Before a low guttural roar shook the cavern and my bones, while rocks began to tumble down from the ceiling, as if the floors above me were about to collapse. My body shook with fear, and apparently, whatever had caused the ceiling to shake sensed my fear, because it made a sound like thunder rumbling directly above my head, before I realized the being was laughing at me.

The laughter shook me out of my stupor, and I drew my sword. The being laughed again, as it heard the sound of my sword being drawn from its scabbard. It made me shake with hatred, as I dropped into a defensive stance, ready to absolutely annihilate whatever it was that kept laughing at me. Then, the cavern was suddenly filled with light, as the being showed its ugly face.

Its face was deformed, as if somebody had taken a lawn mower to it. His arms were buff enough to crush a person, and he was almost as tall as a semi-truck. He had a buzz cut haircut, and wore a mix of Japanese, American, and German military clothes, which should not have gone well together, but he somehow made it work. He smiled cruelly at me, as he pulled a two handed sword from behind his back, unsheathed it, and threw the scabbard at me. I deflected it easily enough, but the scabbard itself weighed almost a literal ton. It made me realize how high this monster's strength stat must be to wield such a blade. I smiled in anticipation, waiting for the battle to begin, before I noticed his name and number of health bars. Not even a boss could compare.

The monster's name was Atlas. He had 6 health bars, and a murderous intent in his eyes. When I entered the cave, I was only level 5. I was now level 19, facing a level 30 boss. I couldn't have asked for an easier death sentence. I noticed that one of his hands was holding up the ceiling. But as he reached for his sword, he let go of the ceiling, and a timer began. 5:00. 4:59. 4:58. 4:57. It continued like that, counting down, until I realized the old myth about the Titan Atlas in Greek mythology. Atlas held up the sky. Someone had to take his place willingly in order for him to escape his burden. And now, I had a time limit before the "sky" collapsed on me. Brilliant. I couldn't waste a moment. I dashed towards my opponent, flipping over a slash of his sword, and stabbing him right in the gut. Golden ichor, the blood of immortals, spilled from his wound, as I turned to inflict more damage, I didn't even notice the giant 10 foot sword swinging at my head before it was too late. He hit me square in the face, and sent me flying into the wall. The ceiling shuddered, as if it had made the time limit shorter and the strength of the walls weaker. The timer read, 4:39, and I had only managed to reduce his health by almost 1/16th of one health bar. I had no idea how I was going to kill him. I proceeded to vault myself over his next sword swing, onto his shoulder, before driving my blade into Atlas' shoulder. Golden ichor spewed from his would like an oil drill in an oil field. It coated my armor, but reinvigorating me to new strengths. Then I realized, that ichor was powerful to mortals and demigods. I quickly but cautiously scooped up some of the ichor, and drank it.

My eyesight became sharper, my muscles stiffer. My hearing excellent. My strength overwhelming. I struck the Titan with renewed energy, my sword becoming an arc of pure death and destruction. Wherever my sword found the Titan's flesh, ichor spilled from that area. Wherever the Titan struck, I was already gone. I risked a glance at the Titan's health bar, and he was down to the red on his last health bar. 1:23. I could do this.

Then, everything went wrong. Atlas switched attack patterns and weapons. He dropped his two handed sword and held out his hand like he was expecting to receive a present. But it was July?! Suddenly, the air in front of him shimmered, and I could feel the power radiating from the shimmering air. Then a black, translucent two handed sword fell into his hand. It was smaller, and looked lighter, but I didn't dare underestimate it. If Atlas dropped his old sword for this new one, it had to be a lot better. I jumped at him, determined to tear him to shreds, when he sidestepped, and jabbed his new sword into my shoulder. As I fell to the ground, I don't remember anything, but I heard a high pitched whining sound echoing off of the walls of the cavern. It might have been me screaming, I couldn't tell. But I do remember Atlas driving his blade into the ground like it was butter, and as the ground shook, five skeletal hands clawed their way into existence. I easily cut down one of them as they spawned, but the other four were much more cautious than their dead counterpart. They kept their distance for the moment, but became restless. Atlas had almost no health left. One well-placed sword skill would kill him. All I needed was a little ichor. But he was all out. 25 seconds. It was now or never.

I ran towards the skeletons, and as they dropped into defensive stances, I jumped as hard as I possibly could, and leapt off of one of their skulls. 10 seconds. I raised my sword above my head, as it began to glow a deep pink. Atlas brought his sword to his side, and it began to glow purple. A skill I had never seen before. He pulled his blade back, and swung it in a sideways motion at my head, but I was already prepared for it. I clutched my sword at the side of my body, letting Atlas' new sword glance off of it, and I was about to strike his head with all of my might, when I saw the sword coming around for a second strike. Instead of striking Atlas' head, I struck his sword, parrying it out of his hand. 5 seconds. I activated my skill again. 4 seconds. My sword began to glow a deep, pink color.

3 seconds. I swung my sword, all of my hatred for the monster in tow.

2 seconds. My sword connected with a hard object, and I struck one last time.

1 second. Atlas' sword was between me and his face.

0 seconds. Time's up.

I braced myself for death, before I realized that Atlas had not disappeared from the room, or respawned with full health. I had two options. Kill Atlas, and let the sky crush me, or let the sky crush us both. Before I could decide, the ceiling fell like a meteor, bashing Atlas in the head, before he slumped to the ground. I hit the deck faster than Atlas hit the ground. The sky slammed into Atlas, but I remained unharmed. I began to crawl towards the exit, before I realized that the quest still wasn't finished. Atlas was still alive, and the sky was falling. I had no choice. My world turned upside down as I picked up the sky off of Atlas' limp body, and pushed upwards.

The pain was nothing I had ever felt before. I didn't know whether it was affecting my physical body, but I was pretty sure I was feeling more pain than the NerveGear was supposed to be accommodated for. I would try to explain the pain for you, but I can't really remember. All I remember is my muscles feeling like someone had injected them with molten lava, and my spine was welded together with a blowtorch, one vertebra at a time. Multiply that by 100, and you're about halfway there to what the pain felt like. It felt like I had been holding up the sky for almost an eon before Atlas finally woke up. He took one look around, saw me holding up the sky, and grinned wickedly. He picked up his sword, and swung once at me. As the sword struck my torso, I weakened my grip, and rolled with the momentum, which propelled me into the wall. I used my legs like a spring and retaliated so fast, the sky didn't even have enough time to fall on top of either of us before I slashed Atlas' neck line. His health began to deplete the moment the sky dropped on his shoulders. He bellowed in rage, before he suddenly burst into a million pieces and the sky froze in place. The room dimmed, as the boss had disappeared, leaving me with nothing but an empty room, and a window of spoils. At the bottom, a bonus item was in my list of items I obtained. I touched it, and suddenly a black, translucent sword appeared in my hands. It was so heavy I almost dropped it. I finally understood why Atlas had chosen this as his weapon.

Out of instinct, I drove the sword into the ground. The cavern rumbled and shook as a fissure opened up in the ground where I stabbed the sword. A skeletal hand clawed its way to existence, and fixed its hollow yellow eyes on me. It regarded me with a cold stare, and then fixed its eyes on Atlas' skeletons. I turned and ran as the skeleton launched itself at the other skeletons. Somehow, I knew that he was going to be able to kill all of them. I ran outside the cavern, and pulled out a teleport crystal.

I soon found out that teleport crystals didn't work in the dungeon. I ran towards the stairs of every floor, bounding up the stairs without even looking at the monsters that were following me. The dungeon rumbled, like it did when the sky fell on top of Atlas. I figured I only had about 30 seconds before the whole place collapsed with me underneath. I practically jumped up the stairs in one jump, and continued climbing without noticing the hordes of monsters following me. My aggro must have been high enough to catch the attention of the boss on the next floor of Aincrad.

As I bolted around enemies, I finally saw a bright light at the top of the stairs. I figured it has to be the entrance. 100 feet away. 90...80...70...60. The dungeon rumbled again, and chunks of the ceiling the size of cars began falling in front of me, in between me and my exit. I was 40 feet from the exit when the ceiling fell all at once. Time seemed to slow down, as I put my new sword in front of me, and used it to vault over the boulders. 10 feet. The ceiling was about 5 feet from my head. I dove as far as I could, and hit the dirt as the dungeon collapsed behind me. I turned and looked back at the cave, but all that was left was a pile of rocks in the middle of a field. I looked around, and saw nobody. I had to have been down in that cave system for almost the whole day. I turned my attention to the sword in my hands. I tapped it, and the icon showed up to claim the sword as a prize of the quest. I accepted, and the sword appeared a second later in my inventory. I equipped the sword, and my attack stat went up higher than I had seen any of the beta testers. I smiled to myself and began walking down the road that led to the next town. I had leveled up enough in the dungeon that even the wolves that had once been a problem for me, were nothing more than a fly in my face. One slash with my new sword was all I needed to take care of them. When I reached the city limits, I noticed that there were a surprisingly large amount of people in the town. I walked into the safe zone, and exhaustion hit me like a freight train, and I collapsed on the spot at the edge of the safe zone.

I awoke to the next morning in an inn in town. I opened up my inventory to check to see if everything was there. I still had all of my items, and everything else. As I stumbled down the steps, I manage to make it to the front desk, and asked how I had gotten there the night before. The gentleman at the counter raised an eyebrow at me and told me that a girl about my height with brown hair, headphones, and a red skirt came into the inn carrying me, and set me up with a room. He also told me that she had told the man at the counter that if I asked about her, to give me a note. I sat down at a table and opened the letter.

Dear Kohr,

You're lucky I was around to help you. Most people aren't as nice as me. You owe me one. I'll see you around.

C

I looked at the letter in awe. This "C" was either really foolish, or really brave. Either way, I admired her. I folded up the letter, and decided to keep it. I tapped it, and put it in my inventory. The letter disappeared and I looked out the window. Another day, another dungeon. And with that, I headed out to the nearest dungeon.


	11. Chapter 12

Hollow Shadows Ch. 12

Kohr

Kohr looked at Kirito with a smile as the duel ended. Kohr deactivated the virtual room and the training center. He turned towards the door to see Chelsea and Volkatz standing in the doorway.

"How long have you two been standing there?"

"Long enough, Kohr. Long enough."

"Dibs on next round with Kirito."

"Volkatz, you can't beat him. He's way out of your league."

"I think the fact that I've beaten you to a standstill as well qualifies me as sparring material for the famed black swordsman."

"I don't think that you-"

"It's ok Kohr. I'd be happy to spar with him."

"Hm. He's your problem now."

Kohr moved out of the way as Volkatz ran past him, hammer in hand and a grin on his face. Kohr walked over to the door and sent the duel rules to Kirito. He exited the room and brushed past Chelsea who had been watching them for a while, specifically Kohr. As Kohr walked past he turned around to see that her gaze had followed him.

"Is there something I can help you with, Chelsea?"

"Uhhhh no! No. Nothing at all. I'm perfectly fine thank you. I was just looking at your muscles- I mean your skills- I mean nothing. I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

Kohr watched as the flustered girl rushed past him into the room he had designed for her and shut the door. He grinned as he realized that she was close to falling for him. Or so he hoped. He still couldn't get to far from the mission at hand. Laughing Coffin could easily have tracked them to their location, and just as easily infiltrated the fortress. Kohr sat down at the console to resolve this problem. After pressing a couple buttons, the walls and hallways in the mansion began to shift and change; making it seem more and more like a labyrinth than a bunch of halls. Several of the hallways led to dead ends with death traps at the end of them. Others led back to the entrance of the mansion. While only one path led to the chamber he was sitting in. No one could ever get past his death traps. Kohr sat back and watched the halls change after every minute. And to think that he had done all this. It astounded even himself. Kohr looked up at the monitors and caught a glimpse a dark robe outside one of his hiding places for special materials. One of his rarest material sites in fact. But just as quickly as the figure appeared, it was gone. Kohr looked at the site suspiciously, and decided, against his better judgement, that he would investigate the anomaly. He picked up his sword, equipped his best armor; a set of red, black, and gold armor labeled Rogue Shadow, and headed out for the entrance. He figured that the group wouldn't miss him for too long. As he walked through the empty halls, he remembered how boring his life was before he met Kirito, who seemed to add a little spice of life whenever he tried to converse with him. However, he couldn't forget Volkatz. As much as he didn't like him, he was one of his best friends, who had been there since third grade. His thoughts soon drifted to Chelsea as he exited the building. The doors sealed shut behind him as he wandered off along the edge of the pit, towards a small teleport crystal. It wasn't too far, and when he reached it, it took him to the place he wanted: the top of the void. Kohr continued on towards the dungeon inside of the mountain, where his hidden stash lay. As he walked, he kept thinking about Chelsea, and he was practically in love with her. There was no denying it. He was truly in love with her. She was smart, strong, athletic, and unlike Kohr, she seemed so secure. He thought about the way she flips her hair when she gets flustered, and how she can change someone's mood in an instant. How her gear shows off her curves, and how she wields her rapier with more skill than he could imagine. These thoughts buried Kohr in his mind, that he didn't see the figure standing right behind him. It grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him to the ground. Kohr looked up in shock as the member of laughing coffin pulled out a small dagger, and jabbed it into his arm he pulled out another dagger, and stabbed it into his other arm, and pulled out two more for his legs. While they didn't do much damage, they had to of been laced with paralysis poison or something, because after they were in his limbs, Kohr couldn't move an inch. He looked up to see three more members of Laughing Coffin appear from the trees. The all pulled out small axe-like hatchets and began hacking away at Kohr. His legs, his arms, his neck, his body, everything. The whole time they were doing this, they were laughing, maniacally, possibly at how stupid Kohr was for not paying attention, but most likely because they had found an easy victim. Kohr's health was being depleted like a rock falling off a cliff. Kohr squirmed and squirmed, trying to escape, each attempt bringing him closer to freedom and at the same time closer to death. He finally managed to break off one of the daggers in his arm, and quickly knocked a side one of the axe wielders, while the other three axe wielders continued hacking at Kohr as he stood up. Kohr punched one of the men in the face, knocking him on his back, and then punching the other two so hard in the gut, they doubled over like they were about to be sick. He pulled the other two daggers out of his right leg and left arm, huffing and puffing from his near death experience. His health was at less than 500 points. That was over 98% of his health gone. Kohr dashed over a rock begin to find cover, and kept running from the death guild. They followed after him in quick pursuit, always on his heels and never giving him time to rest. They were getting closer and closer. Closer. Closer. Closer. And suddenly, Kohr tripped. Of all the stupid, retarded, and dumbest things to do! He tripped! Kohr got to his feet and turned around and with what strength he had left, and pulled out his sword. Unfortunately, it wasn't much strength, because the weight of the sword caused his knees to buckle and fall to the ground again.

"Well... The warrior decides to face his fears like a man. What a pity he won't be able to see the looks on his friends faces when they find out that he's dead. Hahahahaha!"

"You have no idea who you're dealing with."

Kohr noticed the lack of strength even in his voice. He was practically gasping for breath in between words.

"Really? Well that's ok. We'll have plenty time to figure it out when we slaughter your friends. First the black swordsman. Next that weakling smithy, and finally, that cute little girl who f#%ked with our plans in the first place!"

"Don't you dare lay a finger on her! Do you hear me?!"

"Oh yeah. We hear you. We're just ignoring you."

"You... Heartless... Mindless... Gutless... Motherf#%kers!"

"What the hell?"

Kohr's mind lit up with the desire to protect his friends, a fire that burned brighter than a nuclear explosion, and jumped up out of pure hatred and rage. He bashed the hilt of his sword into the face of the nearest LC member and sent him reeling backwards. It didn't do much in the way of damage, but it definitely got his point across.

"What the hell has gotten into you?"

"You know boys. It's ok to feel fear. Because now you know who your god is. And he's right here! And he's fresh out of mercy."

Kohr brought his sword up to his shoulder thrust it with all his might through the first LC member in front of him, dragging it though his body and slicing though the member behind him. Kohr easily dodged a panicked attack from the third member and cut off his arms leaving him defenseless. He turned around and jabbed his sword into the ground and summoned up three different Named Monsters. All three were about the same level as Kohr, meaning it would only take them less than a few seconds to finish the members of LC. He turned around and began to walk away, when he heard the player whose arms were cut off cry out to Kohr.

"Please! If you spare my life, I'll tell you where PoH can be found! I know he wants you dead and I know you want revenge! Please! Let me live!"

"Hmmmm… Alright. Tell me where he's hiding and I'll let you go."

"Thank you! He's hiding out in a base cave not too far from here. It's on the map under a secret entrance, but when you get there, there isn't an entrance. Do you know where?"

"Yes I do. Thank you for your cooperation. Now in vengeance for all of the innocent people you killed, die."

Kohr signaled for the NM to take him out. Kohr turned and left as the monster finished his dirty work. Kohr pulled out a healing potion and healed himself of all damage, restoring his strength and stamina. He started walking back, when felt a pair of extra eyes staring at him from behind a bush to his right. He turned and pounced on the player, drawing his sword in the process. He quickly realized his mistake and sheathed it as fast as he could when he realize the person he jumped on was none other than Chelsea.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Chelsea! I didn't mean to jump you!"

"You know Kohr that was pretty reckless of you."

"What?"

"Going off on your own like that. Now that laughing coffin is after us we should travel in groups."

"Oh right. Yeah."

"You know that was pretty brave of you. Sticking up for us like that. For me specifically. I really admire that in a guy."

"Oh. Y-you really think so?"

"Yeah. I also would admire it if you knew when to stop being so stupid!"

Chelsea stood up and slapped Kohr in the face. He looked at her for a moment too stunned to speak when she suddenly wrapped him up in a hug. He stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do.

"Well? Are you going to hug me back or what you idiot?!"

"Oh! Right."

"God. You always ruin every moment Kohr. That's kind of what I like about you. You're so funny when you don't know how to react. You act like a list puppy sometimes."

"You... Like... Me?"

"Yeah... A little. But don't let it go to your head."

Chelsea turned away from Kohr and started walking away. Kohr could swear that there was a bit of a mischievous skip to her walk. When they arrived back at the fortress, Kohr knew that he was going to have a fun time explaining all of this to Volkatz and Kirito. There goes nothing.

(Author's Note)

So as I begin the finale of this arc, I wanted a couple more chances to develop the relationship between Chelsea and Kohr, and in the last 4 upcoming chapters, a chance to develop Volkatz as a character and a little more of the fortress Kohr "created". Lastly, I have attached two more extras I have written. I hope you enjoy them!

How did you-? Muffin button.

Volkatz looked at Kohr in awe and wonder. Kohr licked his lips.

"Mmmmmm. Smells like their almost done,"

Volkatz looked as though he were about slug Kohr in the gut.

"Are you using my forge to bake a motherf**king MUFFIN?!"

"Yep."

Volkatz's look was priceless. He was about ready to kill Kohr himself, before stopped and a look of complete and utter confusion covered his countenance.

"Where did you GET that muffin?"

"The muffin button in your shop."

"But I don't have a muffin button."

"Huh. Then where did I get this muffin?"

"That's what I'm asking you!"

"Then that means... I got it from...…..."

"...yes?"

"Muffin button."

"GODDAMMIT KOHR!"

Kohr was walking along a path in the Hollow Area, when he reached a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the clearing, sat a stone tablet. That's not suspicious at all. Kohr walked into the center of the clearing, and a boss appeared, to protect the stone tablet. Its name was unknown, as well as its stats and level. But Kohr wasn't concerned. He whipped out his sword, and stabbed it into the ground, cleaving the ground like it was butter. A skeletal hand grasped at the edge of the chasm, and pulled itself up. It clattered its teeth together, and several more skeletal hands grabbed the edge. Nine more skeletons clawed their way to the Hollow Area, and ripped off a rib as a sword. While they weren't the most effective warriors in terms of strategy, their sheer strength and defense were overwhelming. Kohr charged the beast in front while the other skeletons attacked from all sides. I slashed with my sword, and took out a decent chunk of the monster's health. Kohr swung his sword behind him, and his sword began to glow bright, vibrant white.

Kohr activated his ultimate skill, and began the motions. The boss' health ran down so far, by the time Kohr was done, he didn't even need the skeletons. Kohr stood back and watched the skeletons annihilate the Unknown Boss. After he was dead, an item appeared in his inventory. Kohr laughed when he looked at the name. He equipped it and pushed the button. And that was when a muffin appeared in his hands.

"So there I was, surrounded by Orc Generals-"

"They were boars."

"-and there were forty of them-"

"There were four."

"-and I was almost in the red zone of my health-"

"He was in the green the whole time."

"-and I jumped up in the air-"

"He ran away screaming."

"-and landed one sword blow and killed them all!"

"I jumped in and saved him."

"Isn't that right, Volkatz?!"

"No, Noah. You fucked up."

"SEE?! It's all true..."

"What the fuck are you on, Noah?! AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY-"

"Muffin Button."

"GOD DAMMIT NOAH!"

Volkatz was in a bit of a pinch. He was running out of time for the quest, and he had to defeat a boss, but he couldn't even reach the boss yet. That's when a dark shadow with a huge sword leapt out of nowhere. It landed in the center of the monster mob, dealing an AoE skill against all of the monsters, killing them in one hit. Kohr turned to look at Volkatz, and smiled.

"Hey Volkatz!"

"How did you-"

"Muffin Button."

"God...dammit...Noah."

"Well, shall I help you?"

"No."

"Alrighty then! Let's go!"

"Do you ever listen to me?"

"Nope!"

"Damn you..."

Kohr and Volkatz continued travelling towards a dungeon boss room, and when they reached it, Kohr pushed open the doors and walked in. The boss appeared in no time, and Kohr wasted no time in activating his ultimate skill, and almost killing the boss in one hit. Kohr grabbed the boss in his arms and yelled-

"Full Nelson!"

"Noah! Stop trying to be Goku?"

"What's Goku? Some kind of food?"

"Dammit Noah!"

"Just kill him already."

"I'll hurt you."

"Whatever."

"Fine! Not my problem anyways."

Volkatz slammed his hammer into Kohr and the monster, killing the monter and Kohr.

"What the fuck?! Did I just kill him?!"

"Nope."

"How the hell did you get behind me?"

"Muffin Button."

"GOD DAMMIT NOAH!"

Dinner at Brusque Works

After Kohr literally buried him in a mountain of materials, which hurt like hell on a side note, Volkatz reluctantly invited them all to dinner. Kirito generously accepted his offer, and Kohr just smiled at Volkatz with a crazy countenance. Volkatz shivered at the look, but went into the back room to change from his forge gear to his casual looks, as well as to go upstairs and set up his dining table for guests. Volkatz always kept the upstairs clean for guests, even if his own room was a complete tornado. Volkatz walked up the steps with Kirito and Kohr following behind him.

Thanks to the two of them, Volkatz was able to prepare dinner much faster, and within ten minutes dinner was ready. As they all dug into the food, it was Kohr who started the dinner conversation.

"So-"

"No."

"I'm sorry, what was that, Volkatz?"

"I said no. We are not having another Senior dinner party."

"What the hell, Volkatz?! I haven't said anything yet!"

"I will not have you fuck up my house. Let alone my dining room."

"Umm... Volkatz, can I interject?"

"What is it Kirito?"

"What am I missing here?"

"Ok, so when Noah and I were in high school back in America-"

"NO VOLKATZ! We are not going through the story in front of Kirito!"

"Bitch this is my house, and these are my rules. Shut the fuck up. Anyway, as I was saying-"

"Luke! Last chance! I. Said. NO!"

"You cannot tell me what I can and can't do in my own house! Any way Kirito, Noah and I were seniors in high school when we went to dinner with the other seniors of our class."

"That's it! I'm not listening to you anymore!"

Kohr grabbed a handful of food from the table and threw it at Volkatz. Volkatz retaliated in kind with his drink. In less than two seconds, it turned into an all-out food fight between the two.

Kohr picked up a long piece of bread, and held it like his two handed sword. Volkatz picked up a long carving knife and pointed it at Kohr. Volkatz rushed Kohr and swung his carving knife at the loaf of bread. Kohr rolled out of his way and picked up a serving platter and deflected another blow from the knife. Using the breadstick, Kohr knocked the knife out of Volkatz's hand. Volkatz fled to the other side of the table and picked up a handful of candies and began throwing them at him one by one, slowly advancing on him all the while, until he was able to kick the bread from his hand and tackle him to the ground. Kohr bashed the platter over Volkatz's head and launched him over Kohr's head. Volkatz slammed his head against the wall, getting up groggily as Kohr began throwing whole plates of food at him. Volkatz darted from side to side, dodging most of the food. Right when he was directly in front of Kohr, Kohr brought his hand up and signaled a pause. Volkatz lowered his hands, as Kohr swung his other hand to Volkatz's face with a pie. Kohr started laughing maniacally and started rolling on the floor, as Volkatz's face became red with fury. Volkatz grabbed another pie off of the table and smashed it against Kohr's face.

Now it was Volkatz's turn to laugh maniacally, as Kohr now looked like a mall Santa with all of the whipped cream on his face. Kohr and Volkatz heard a small snicker come from the corner of the room, which escalated to a giggle, and then to all out laughter. The two looked over to find Kirito clutching his gut as he had tears rolling down his cheeks from laughing so hard, and he was wheezing as he could barely catch his breath. Volkatz and Kohr looked at the table to see one last pie, and they grinned knowing what to do with it. Kohr blocked the door as Volkatz picked up the pie and slowly walked toward Kirito, who was totally oblivious to what was happening. The last Kirito saw was a silver pie plate accelerating towards his face before whipped cream pasted the front of his face.


	12. Chapter 13

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter XIII

Volkatz

Volkatz looked at Kohr in disbelief as he told him his story. He could have just walked away and left them alone, but he just HAD to intervene. He had known Noah for years and he was always making the rashest decisions he could possibly choose. It was a wonder that he hadn't gotten the shit kicked out of him earlier. Volkatz had heard these stories a thousand times IRL. He turned around and walked towards the training room. Volkatz opened the door and activated the training sequence. After his fight with Kirito he was more determined to train harder than ever. He wasn't going to humiliate himself again. After many fights with Kohr, Volkatz had thought he would at least give Kirito a run for his money, but unfortunately, he did no more than make a fool of himself. If he was going to try and beat Kirito and Kohr, he would have to learn a very special skill to gain an advantage over both warriors. As he was thinking, Volkatz continued bashing and breaking any and all training dummies in his way. He was so focused; he didn't notice Kohr walk through the door behind him.

"Hey man."

"Holy-! Jeez. You scared me."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"Oh. Ok. Well, let me know if need anything, ok?"

"Sure. Actually, would you mind if I took a look at the control console?"

"What for?"

"I wanted to… check a couple things on the coding for my shop."

"Sure. Come on. I'll log you in."

Volkatz sighed and followed Kohr to the command console trough the confusing halls. Left, right, left, right, up, down... Wait. Up and down?! Whatever. Volkatz continued to follow Kohr until they turned down a corridor with a bright light at the end. They both strolled into the room and sat down at the two chairs in front of the console. Volkatz looked over at Kohr as he started rapidly jamming his fingers on the buttons on the keyboard. He strained his arm underneath the slab of data, flipped a switch, and a hologram of a screen appeared in front of them, startling Volkatz. He watched as Kohr's fingers were practically gliding over the keyboard, his hands blurring as numbers were entered into the system. Volkatz watched as Kohr stopped typing, and a something that looked like a screen saver and a welcoming sign on it with Kohr's name.

"There you go, man. All set. Over here is your programming, here is your files, and this is your cameras for the hollow area sections. And don't bother looking for Laughing Coffin. I've spent several months here going through every camera and file searching for them. Wherever they are, they know I have a console and stay hidden from the cameras. So, whatever you want to do, you can probably do it here. Good luck."

"Thanks man."

"No problem."

Kohr walked out of the room as Volkatz began typing. He felt a little guilty about lying to Kohr about wanting to check his shop, but he shoved aside the thought when he remembered that he was being left in the dust in terms of strength. As he continued pressing buttons, the console felt different than he imagined. Thinking it was going to be rough like stone, it instead felt more like a computer keyboard, as each key had a groove in it to fit a person's finger, and it also had a plastic-like feel to it. Volkatz's fingers begin to apply themselves against the keys at a faster rate than before, as he was starting to feel more comfortable with the material of the console. Volkatz looked at the codes he just input, recognizing them as his own data configurations. He hit enter, and the console began to hum at his feet and his avatar began to glow around the edges, until he was glowing with a blue light. He typed in a few more coding lines as he felt himself begin to hum in sync with the console. He hit enter, and his hammer began to glow with him, when a window in front of him appeared, informing him of his newly acquired skill. Volkatz accepted the message and the hum in stopped immediately. He returned to his normal state, without the hum or glow from the system. He exited out of the program and was about to log off when a file on the screen caught his attention. It was labelled as 'Composition'. At first he didn't give it a second thought, until he realized that Kohr was never into writing. It was weird. Why would he have a file on a video game, about writing? Volkatz selected the file and opened it up. Suddenly, pages and pages of programming data flew by his eyes, hundreds of hours of programming all in one file. One certain line caught his attention. He recognized it as a compilation of elemental materials. It was under the label of 'SAO Chemical Makeup'. Volkatz had no idea what it meant, when he realized that Kohr had been researching the chemical composition of games and computers in the real world before they were sucked into this nightmare. This meant that he had been continuing his research in the game, by using this console to experiment with the chemical makeup of the game's system. Several letters flew by as Volkatz was scrolling down, which in programming, was odd. It was all ones and zeros. He scrolled back up to it, and recognized a couple elements; Ar. Si. Pb. Cu. As. All elements that appeared common in the design of a video game system. But one element stuck out. Tc. The element of Technetium. If memory served Volkatz correctly, his chemistry classes told him that technetium was a highly unstable element, created as a byproduct of the fission of Uranium. And it was not found on Earth at that time. Why would be in SAO? Volkatz escaped from the file and explored the console a little further, when he noticed several interestingly labelled files such as 'Players of SAO', 'Exploration of Skills', and 'Testing Data'. Each of these seemed as though he was uncovering more and more of what Kohr was truly doing here, and he was about to open them up to reveal their secrets, when a pair of footsteps caused him to immediately log out of the system to avoid being caught.

"Volkatz. What are you doing?"

"Noah. I could ask you the same thing."

"Luke. What did you do?"

"So you finally used my real name! Thank you."

"I'm not kidding anymore, Luke. What did you do with the console?"

"I just solved world hunger, that's all."

"I don't have time for your immature games."

"Me? Immature? That's rich! Coming from you; the most immature person in the world. However, more importantly Noah, what are you really doing here in this pit, with this unregistered command console? I'd really like to know what you've been testing in here."

"So you did a little extra snooping. You know that I let you use that console out the kindness of our friendship. Don't break my trust."

"Oh! Your trust! Your trust?! You're the one who's doing these experiments behind our backs! You haven't told any of us! Not Kirito, who is basically destined to save us from this hell-hole, not Chelsea, the person you're in love with, and not even me, your best friend."

"Fine. You want to know what I'm doing in here?! I'm trying to save everyone. I came here searching for help from any of the beasts outside in the Hollow Area. When I found this safe zone in a battle area, I couldn't resist making it my base. I saw a golden opportunity to help the people in SAO, and I took it."

"Then how. How are you helping us by keeping his secret?"

"These tests are testing the structural integrity and the chemical makeup of both the systems running SAO, and the cardinal system in charge of SAO. These tests have revealed frightening conclusions to me that if I were to reveal to this world, it would cause panic and chaos would ensue, giving Laughing Coffin the perfect opportunity to strike at us while we're busy trying to calm the maniacal chaos happening to us all. I've been trying to use my knowledge of chemical compounds to figure out a new combination of elements to create a more stable cardinal system, and some way to contact the outside world using it."

"Wait. Noah, did you say "a more stable system"?

"Yes. You can't tell anyone. I will tell Kirito and Chelsea in time, but right now, I trust you the most to keep this info hidden. The cardinal system's chemical makeup of data is being overrun with amount of deaths occurring in this world, and has depleted most of its known resources trying to fix the problem, beginning the long process of destroying its own core processor. This whole process started when the first 2,000 deaths in the game occurred, and it has been steadily worsening its condition by creating more MHC programs like Yui, and the newest one, MHCP002. The creation of this mental health counseling program has put unprecedented amounts of strain on the cardinal system, as it is going AWOL as MHCP001, or Yui did."

"So then, how much time do we have before the system breaks down?"

"Less than a month."

Volkatz looked at Kohr in disbelief. He couldn't understand what he just heard. In a world they've spent almost 2 years in, he was just told that the system would break down after only a month. It was unbelievable. Volkatz slumped in his chair, his countenance assuming a more devastated look. Volkatz's head looked up at Kohr.

"I saw in the files that you were doing research on the chemicals making up the system. What was that bit about Technetium in there?"

"So you saw that did you?"

"Yes."

"Well, Volkatz; Technetium, as you might remember, is a very rare element. In fact, it cannot be found on earth because it is a byproduct of the fission of Uranium-238. This means that it is a very unstable element. It is actually impossible to get without travelling into space. This must mean that Kayaba Akihiko is flying into space, blowing up a star, and stealing the Technetium from it. However, the most logical explanation is that Kayaba is smart enough that he has found a new way to synthetically manufacture a form of Technetium. This would require huge amounts of Uranium exposure, combined with a multitude of compounds that change the atoms in the element. This would make Kayaba the smartest person in the world. And seeing what he's done with this game, he is."

Volkatz slumped back down into his chair, finally grasping the gravity of the situation everybody in SAO was in. A cardinal system, with a brand new, never before seen, element, was on the brink of destruction. And there was only one way to save everyone. Beat the game. Volkatz jumped to his feet, a new-born fire flaring in his eyes.

"Well then. If we have only one month left, we need to figure out a way to defeat Laughing Coffin, beat the game and clear floor 100, all within the small window of time we have."

"That sounds about right. Anything else we need to go over?"

"Just one more thing, Noah."

"What?"

"I'd like to test out my new skill against you."

(Author's Note)

In this chapter, I decided to bring in a little bit of my knowledge about chemistry, and my field of study that I would like to go into. This works to my advantage in the game, as I can create a new problem that must be brought to the front burner with the utmost importance. I also added a little extra of Luke gaining his own unique skill that he programmed. I have included it in the next chapter, so I hope you enjoy it! Finally, with this Arc coming to an end, I would like to let you know that I am putting the finishing touches on an ALFheim Online Arc, and I am beginning a Gun Gale Online Arc. I hope you look forward to seeing the new installments after this arc comes to a close!

Minions

(So this extra is about the ability of Besetzt: Kohr's special sword)

Almost a month after Kohr had obtained his special sword from the quest involving Atlas; Kohr had almost perfected his ability to summon any enemy he had previously bested in combat. Recently, however, there was a rumor floating around the towns that there was an enemy that had the health of a boss, and that said boss would drop a really rare item. However, nobody knew how to spawn said boss. All that anybody knew is that the beast's name had something to do with Greek mythology.

The only thing that Kohr could think of was that the enemy that would spawn had something to do with his quest involving Atlas. And now, another Titan was there for him. Because it was public knowledge where the enemy spawned, Kohr knew right where to go. Outside of the town where Kohr collapsed in after fighting through the labyrinth, and along the path to the third city, was another little cave, just like the first. And just like the first, a little alcove was in the back of the cave. Kohr knew that the area wasn't going anywhere, so he went back to town to get resupplied with a bunch of potions and strength potions and teleport crystals, even though he knew they probably wouldn't work when he went down into the cave.

When Kohr returned, the alcove was still there, so he entered. This time, the cave was only one floor, which made things much easier. However, Kohr's attack time was much longer than usual, and every swing of his sword felt like he was attempting to swing a hundred baseball bats at once. When Kohr reached the boss room, it was lit with torches around a giant stadium that looked similar to a colosseum. And at the center of the arena was a man in solid black armor, with a sickle in one hand, and his other hand wrapped around a large spear. The man hefted the spear and threw it at the doorway above my head. I dove for the ground before the spear impacted the doorway, reducing the doorway to nothing but a giant mound of rubble. No turning back. Kohr swung his sword up around his shoulders and smiled at the man. After his encounter with Atlas and perfecting his summoning technique, Kohr was more than confident in his abilities to defeat the man. That was, until the boss's name and health appeared. He had one health bar. Like a player. But his level was insane. Kohr had levelled up to level 30, on the first floor. Not easy. But this boss was level 50. A level equivalent with floor 25 or 30. Not floor one! Kohr's spirit dropped as he read the name and the image burned into his mind.

Kronos. The name itself struck fear into Kohr's heart. The Lord of time stood before him, as he was in his way. Kohr mustered his own courage, focused his thoughts, and plunged his sword into the ground. His sword began to glow as the earth cracked and rumbled as Kohr used all of his stamina and most of his health to summon 30 monsters to his aid. It had taken him some practice, but after he gulped down a healing potion, he was back at full strength. Kohr quickly gulped down a strength potion as well, before time slowed to a crawl.

Everything happened in slow motion. Literally. Kohr crouched down to dash at his opponent, but Kronos leisurely strolled over to Kohr, and swung his scythe at Kohr, cutting his health in half with one strike. Kohr's forces leapt into action. Fortunately, the game's design wasn't meant to encounter this situation, where CPUs fought CPUs. Therefore, Kohr's forces where unaffected by stat downs and the time slow affect. Kohr stayed back, as while his forces wore away at Kronos' health, he charged up his best skill. Kronos was surprisingly weak against CPUs, as he was mainly crafted for a fight against players, and so when Kohr use his skill, he sliced through Kronos 3 times before Kronos disappeared into data. It was almost disappointing that it was such an easy fight. Kohr levelled up almost 7 levels before a new quest spawned in his inventory. It was titled, the "Olympian Quest". Kohr smiled as he accepted the conditions and was teleported into the next area.

Forest Run

(This extra was a different opening to Kohr's chapter when he fought against Kirito after chasing Chelsea through the Hollow Area)

Kohr had recovered from the Griffon attack and began to give chase to the girl of beauty. As he kept running, his armor clanking with every step, he realized she must have had a high stealth skill, because Kohr's aggro was through the roof. As he kept his pace to follow the beautiful girl, more and more monsters were on his trail. Kohr exited the forest, only to turn and find that his aggro had grown so much that a Named Monster had emerged from the forest with almost 20 more monsters behind it. Kohr cursed the coding of the game to include aggro as the monsters in front of him were only in his way of the gorgeous maiden. Kohr drew his sword and his eyes narrowed to watch for the first move. A small plant monster with little health advanced towards Kohr. A quick slash with his two handed sword was all it took to bring down the plant. The Dragon growled as Kohr lowered himself into a defensive stance, and three more minion-like monsters advanced. They reached Kohr in less than a second, attacking with fierce ferocity and deadly precision. A flurry of claws and slashes landed on Kohr, before the three retreated back to the group. Kohr stood up from his defensive stance and almost laughed at how weak the monsters in front of him were. He dropped down to his knees and swung his sword behind him as if he were to start charging at them. But much to the surprise of the monsters, he instead jumped up and over them all and landed behind a group of seven monsters. The group turned to look at the warrior, only to find that they could not turn, and the ground was growing ever closer as their heads were severed from their bodies. Kohr slashed through every enemy that stepped in his way of the dragon. The closer he got, the more excited he was, until he was standing directly in front of the dragon. The dragon opened his mouth, mist likely to unleash a burst of fire, but Kohr would never know. Before the dragon could finish his attack, Kohr drove his blade up through the top of the powerful beast's head, landing a critical blow and killing the beast in one shot. Kohr smiled as he gathered up a rare drop from the dragon: a Chrome Dragon Breaths Gem. Perfect for making a rare one handed sword. As Kohr ran off to continue searching for the girl, he wondered how he would be able to persuade Volkatz to make the sword for him. But that was a thought for another time.


	13. Chapter 14

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter XIV

Volkatz

Volkatz dropped into a defensive stance with his hammer, as Kohr widened the distance between his feet and crouched. Volkatz had told him that all skills, including ultimate skills, were allowed in this battle. He knew that that meant Kohr was going to go all out against him. So he couldn't hold back at all. Volkatz intensely stared at Kohr, waiting for him to move even an inch, so he could make his move. They stood there staring at each other for almost 30 seconds, before Kohr had decided to make the first move. Volkatz launched himself up and over Kohr's head, landed behind him and bashed his back with his hammer. Volkatz landed a direct hit on his back, smashing his armor, dealing a small amount of damage. Volkatz continued to hack and smash at Kohr, even after he turned around to face Volkatz. Kohr slowly walked backwards, Volkatz following him, hammer in hand. Volkatz back flipped from Kohr, pointing his hammer at his opponent. That's when Volkatz realized that Kohr hadn't even unsheathed Besetzt yet. Volkatz began to get red with fury.

"What the fuck, you bastard?!"

"What is it Volkatz? Did I do something wrong?"

"Is this just a fucking game to you?"

"Ummmmm..."

"Don't you fucking answer that question. Motherfucker..."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Well for starters, I'd like you to go fuck yourself."

"Whoa! I sense some hostility in those words."

"NO FUCKING SHIT DUMBASS!"

"So what do you want me to do? Pull out my sword?"

"Yes! Please! That would make me very happy."

"How about... No. Show me your new skill, and I might."

"ENOUGH!"

Volkatz charged Kohr out of hatred, slashing and hacking at his armor with renewed vigor. Volkatz swung his hammer in an arc of pure destruction, aimed right at Kohr's head. Kohr raised his arms in an "X" fashion and deflected Volkatz's hammer off of his gauntlets, sending a ricocheting vibration down Volkatz's arm and into his shoulder. Volkatz halted the vibrations with a thrust of the top of his hammer into Kohr's chest, and as a result, Kohr was thrown to the ground from the force of Volkatz's blow. Kohr retaliated by using both feet to kick Volkatz in the chest. This sent him flying backwards, into a large rock on the terrain. Volkatz leapt behind said rock and slowly rolled and changed positions behind several different rocks, until he was positioned behind Kohr. His heart pounded as he heard Kohr's feet crunching on the ground. Volkatz determined that Kohr was done screwing off, and so he decided to use his new skill. He waited until it sounded as though Kohr was almost directly in front of him, and leapt out from behind the rock, kicking Kohr in the face. While his ass was on the ground, Volkatz activated his skill, letting his hammer grow in energy and power, until it was physically crackling with electricity and glowing with fiery energy. Volkatz swung his hammer to the ground where Kohr was laying, and as it was flying through the air, a hammer shaped chunk of energy flew from his hand and landed where Kohr had been laying. The energy exploded, leaving a crater in the virtual environment.

"That was just a taste of what's to come, Noah!"

"Good! Then that means I won't hold back!"

Volkatz watched as Kohr started to swing his sword above his head, glowing with black and white with translucent energy. Volkatz knew what was happening, and decided to put a stop to it. Volkatz brought his hammer up behind his head with both hands and held it there, while it gathered energy, the crystal at the center of his hammer crackling and shocking the edges of the hammer, until it was overflowing with energy, emitting tendrils of lightning. Just as Kohr was swinging his sword to cleave through the ground, Volkatz swung his hammer allowing all of the pent up energy to release itself, sending a hammer shaped fiery inferno towards Kohr. The energy slammed into him, stopping his skill and sending Kohr flying, while Volkatz continued to swing his hammer, over and over, until the air was filled with fiery hammers, all homing in on Kohr. The explosion of energy sent a shock wave through the virtual environment so strong, the illusion around them shorted out for a moment and they were back in the training area, until it reactivated, putting them back into the virtual training realm. Volkatz looked over to where Kohr was, and saw him on the ground groaning from the explosions. He had taken a direct hit from ten energy blasts. Volkatz looked at the health bar of his friend; while his armor had absorbed damage like it was supposed to, it wasn't enough to absorb the amount of damage that was inflicted upon him. Kohr's health had already dropped past the halfway mark. Volkatz knew he had to finish him off quickly if he wanted to beat him before Kohr activated his ultimate skill. Volkatz knew he had just enough SP to use his skill one more time. Quickly doing the math in his head, the amount of damage he would inflict would be just enough to bring him under the red health bar, securing his victory. Volkatz activated his skill again, ready to fire another round of energy bursts, but when the dust cleared, Volkatz saw that it was too late. Kohr was already finishing the process of activation for his ultimate skill. Kohr lunged at Volkatz with enough strength to leave a crater behind him, with his sword falling down from above with one hand on the sword and one hand in front of him to grab Volkatz by the collar. Volkatz looked Kohr in the eyes as he was hit several times with a one-handed slice, and two times with a two-handed slash. Volkatz had sustained considerable damage before Kohr kicked him to the ground, and slammed his sword down on his chest, bringing his health down into the yellow zone. Kohr jumped backwards and stabbed his sword into the ground. Volkatz reacted in kind by backflipping onto a boulder behind him. While standing on top, he briskly activated his ultimate skill. His hammer began to glow one more time, electricity and fire crackling in the air, the energy in the hammer building up. The ground began to shake as it split in front of Kohr, and several monsters began to claw their way out of the ground. It had to have taken all of his remaining SP, and then some, because three NM were staring right at Volkatz. It was a real dilemma on his hands. Volkatz knew he had no choice. He directed his skill at the monsters and swung his hammer. The energy flew from the center of his hammer again and again, landing on all three monsters. Three energy bursts for each monster, and one for Kohr. The monsters exploded with the energy, the smoke covering the landscape, as one last energy hammer spun towards its target in the center of the smoke. An explosion out of sight rocked the boulder Volkatz was standing on. When the smoke cleared, Volkatz paled. Not only did Volkatz miss Kohr entirely, he had disappeared from sight. Volkatz couldn't waste time searching for Kohr. He charged up another assault to ready himself for any of Kohr's attacks, and turned around just in time to swing his hammer at Kohr's face. The energy emitted from his hammer surrounded them both, creating an inferno of fire that encompassed everything in a ten foot radius. After swing his hammer in an arc almost 5 times, multiple energy hammers collided into Kohr, including Volkatz's hammer into Kohr's face. This brought Kohr's health all the way into the red zone, just below the limit bar. Volkatz stood above Kohr with pride. He defeated Kohr again. And now, the score was almost even. Volkatz jumped down from the boulder as Kohr stood up and looked at his friend. Kohr smiled and grasped his friend's hand. Volkatz looked at Kohr in triumph, knowing that this was the turning point of their duels together. Volkatz turned around and started to walk towards the door, when he realized it wasn't there. And the virtual environment was still there as well. Something was wrong. The system hadn't teleported them back to the dueling stage. They were both trapped in the arena. Volkatz looked over at Kohr, and he had the same worried face that Volkatz had on right now.

"Noah, where is the exit?"

"I have no idea, Volkatz. It should have reappeared when you won the duel. Come to think of it, you didn't get the duel winner sign, did you?"

"No. You're right, I didn't. Then that means..."

"We're trapped in here with no communication to either Chelsea or Kirito."

"But why?!"

"I don't know!"

"Noah, don't you have failsafe protocols or something to prevent this from happening?"

"No! It's written into the code of the game! A duel doesn't end until one winner has the winner's sign!"

"Can you still get hurt?"

"I don't know. Hold on a sec."

Kohr leveled his sword towards himself and began to thrust it into his chest.

"NOAH STOP! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"

"Then what did you mean?"

"I meant exactly what I said; can we get hurt? But I didn't want you to try it on yourself!"

"Then what are we supposed to do, Volkatz?"

"I don't know. You're the owner of this base."

Suddenly, a dark voice from above filled the air around them with maniacal laughter.

"Well well. It looks like the fly has caught the spider. What ever shall he do?"

(Author's Note)

This chapter was done to bring a little bit of reader sympathy for Volkatz, and to kind of bring him in as a partially relevant character. It also served to put Kohr and Volkatz in an impossible situation. This is setting the stage for the final battle! Who is going to DIE?!

Barriers

(This here is a different version of what happened in chapter III to Chelsea after stealing their weapons)

Chelsea jumped down from the rock and landed right in front of the two burned out warriors. They both jumped back in surprise. She looked at the two swordsmen, and then swiped her hand at the them. They looked down and realised that their weapons were no longer in their own hands. Chelsea took the opportunity to knock them both on their asses and take off. She looked back at the armored man and gave him a smile and winked at him. She could tell even without seeing his face that he was blushing. As she continued going, she heard the two of them getting up over their stupor and attempting to pursue her. She jumped into a tree nearby and slowed her breathing. Her stealth was unparalleled. She watched below as the warriors came by the tree, and ran right by her. She jumped down from the tree and ran back the way she came.

'What idiots. They completely fell for it!'

Then she reached the bridge and realised that they weren't such idiots that she had made them out to be. They had somehow managed to place a teleportation barrier at the front hate to the bridge.

'Very clever.'

Chelsea turned around and ran the other way. She heard a commotion up ahead and and slowed her breathing. Her stealth skill couldn't fail her now. She peeked over the ridge and saw the two warriors working together to put up another barrier.

"No no no no no! Shit!"

Chelsea quickly hit the dirt and clamped her hand over her mouth. Had they heard her? She had no idea. She waited a couple seconds. When nothing happened, she looked up over the ridge. The only thing she saw was a glowing blue light from the barrier. No sign of the two men who were there earlier. This worried her. As she was thinking to herself, Chelsea didn't notice a black figure creeping up behind her. She turned around and saw a black hand grab her neck and fling her to the ground. She looked up to see the Black Swordsman looking down on her. The armored man walked out from behind a tree. She looked back at the Black Swordsman now choking her.

"But...how could...you...find...me?!

"Simple. My detection skill is higher than your hiding skill."

"D-damn..."

Chelsea looked up at the Black Swordsman as he retrieved his sword from her hand. Her vision was beginning to blur. He then dropped her to the ground. She looked at the armored man as he walked towards her, fire burning in his eyes. Chelsea became frightened and tried to crawl away from him, but he grabbed her by the collar before she could escape. He pulled his sword out of her hands and sheathed it. He looked back up at her. He stared into her blue eyes, into her soul, it felt like, and then her vision blacked out and she lost consciousness.


	14. Chapter 15

Hollow Shadows Ch. 15

Chelsea

Chelsea had been monitoring the battle between Volkatz and Kohr on the system console, when the building's systems shut down. The halls were pitch black, the console had gone dark, and their communications were offline. Chelsea couldn't send a message to anybody, nor could she receive one from anyone either. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew that she had to find Kirito fast. If the console had been deactivated, then so had the training program, which meant bad things for Kohr and Volkatz. But knowing Kohr's ability to code and rewrite coding, Chelsea wasn't too worried about them. He was more worried about herself. If the intruders were looking for them, she had to have back up if there were more than four, and most likely, there were. This meant the only people capable of locating them had to be Laughing Coffin. Chelsea accelerated her pace as those thoughts raced through her mind. She knew she had to find Kirito quickly. Chelsea was rounding corners, running into dead ends, backtracking, and losing her way with every passing minute. Chelsea halted herself where she was and looked around the halls, not recognizing anything around her. Everything looked the same on all sides. The only difference was direction. Then Chelsea heard someone walking towards her, the wood floor creaking under their weight. Chelsea unsheathed her rapier, not able to tell which way the sound was coming from, but she knew that it was getting closer. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder from behind, and without even looking, she responded in kind, by swinging her rapier at the person behind her. However, her attack was deflected by a quick strike of her assailant. She hastily activated a skill, swinging her rapier in a downward motion, as the assailant took a step back, and then an upper cut, which they parried with precision accuracy. Chelsea swung her rapier at their feet, knocking them off balance. Chelsea then responded again by grabbing her opponent's sword hand, an dragging m them into the light, exposing them.

"Kirito?!"

"Owww..."

"What the hell are doing?"

"Looking for you, Kohr, and Volkatz. What else would I be doing here?"

"Then why did you attack me?"

"That's not true. You started the altercation."

"Is that right ?"

"Whatever. I'm not going to argue with you, Chelsea. We need to get to the console in order to free Kohr and Volkatz."

"The console is down. It's useless."

"Actually, it has a manual reboot function that-"

"Whatever! If it can work, lets go!"

Chelsea took off running in the direction she thought the console was, when she stopped and turned around to look at Kirito.

"Ummmmm..."

"You don't know which way it is, do you Chelsea?"

"Shut up and go"

"Can I get a please?"

"You'll get no please, and like it! Now move your ass!"

"Ok! Jeez..."

Chelsea followed Kirito every which way, rounding corners, travelling through the halls, until they reached their destination. But when they found it, somebody was already at the console, punching in numbers. The figure was also speaking into a microphone.

"-caught the spider. What ever shall he do?"

Chelsea ran up to the figure and swung her rapier at it. The person dodged gracefully and countered her blow with the swing of a hatchet. Chelsea looked at the weapon in horror as she realized who the character was. PoH smiled at Chelsea in a manner that made her shiver as he pressed the enter button on the console. Numbers and words flew by on the screen, but Chelsea managed to catch a couple words such as 'Skill... Copy... Distribute... Laughing Coffin... Lock... Doors... Section 13.' Chelsea looked at him in disgust as he made a break for the exit, but was almost immediately blocked by Kirito. The two exchanged attacks, countering blow for blow, before knocking each other back. Chelsea looked at Kirito in worry. He had sustained a bit of damage from pOH, which scared Chelsea. PoH had all the means necessary to kill her. She had to be careful. Chelsea used her peak speed to run at the wall on PoH's left side, jump off of it and land behind him with her rapier drawn. An upward thrust with her rapier made contact on his left thigh causing him to collapse on the ground in pain. Chelsea quickly back flipped, just in time before he reacted with a swing of his axe, slicing the air where Chelsea had been standing. Chelsea ended up on the opposite side when Poh swung his axe. She made a swift jab with her rapier at his back, digging it in as fast as she could, before retracting her blade and rolling to his left. When PoH turned to his right, she resumed her assault on him by plunging her rapier as far into his thigh as possible, before rolling backwards and dodging another one of his attacks. Chelsea retreated to Kirito's side, PoH staring daggers at both of them. She looked at his health bar, and although she had made more than a dozen blows, he had only lost a sliver of his health. Chelsea looked at Kirito and he nodded in understanding. She rushed pOH on the right while Kirito rushed him on the left. Chelsea watched PoH's dominant hand twitch before he swung his hatchet at her neck, but not before she dropped to her knees and slid into his legs, knocking him to the ground. Kirito followed Chelsea's attack by bringing his sword down into PoH's back, damaging him a lot more than Chelsea ever could. Chelsea stood back up and faced Kirito. They were both on opposite sides of PoH, but out of arms reach of him. Kirito started to advance on him, when footsteps from behind him distracted him. PoH took this opportunity to lunge at Chelsea, knocking her off her feet and planting a well-earned kick to her ribs before he took off down the corridor. Kirito helped Chelsea to her feet while he kept his sword pointed at the hallway now in front of him. The footsteps were growing louder and louder until someone walked out of the halls and into the light. Almost fifteen people walked out of the hallway before Kirito pulled out his second sword. Chelsea lowered her rapier to aim the point of it at a couple of LC members. Kirito led off with a 16 combo attack, taking out 5 enemies, while Chelsea targeted 1 enemy with a 10 hit combo. She charged her target and slashed him 3 times, back and forth. She followed it with an uppercut, and then a downward slice. She then attacked him making an X mark on his chest twice, finishing with a central stab to his stomach. He then disappeared in a flash of light, leaving her surrounded by five more. Judging by how easy it was to rid the world of one member, Chelsea decided to take her chances with a Heavy Attack skill that had a six hit combo. So long as she could finish off her opponents with one hit each, she would be fine. She activated her skill and launched herself at one of the men in front of her. She stabbed one in the gut, and then moved on to slice the neck of another. She rolled behind and stabbed the third in the spine, jumped up and slashed the chest of the fourth, following up with a stab to the chest of the fifth and final enemy. Chelsea turned around expecting them to be either dead or dying; before she realized that none of them had sustained much damage. She had made the mistake of underestimating them, and she was about to pay the price for it. Chelsea looked over at Kirito, who was busy executing three more murderers, and started to call out to him, before realizing that she couldn't move. Her body was not responding to her commands. She looked down to see what was wrong, and found the tip of a small dagger protruding from her chest. She looked up at Kirito, fear in her eyes. Kirito's eyes met with hers, widening in fear. She was paralyzed. Kirito shouted something to her, but Chelsea couldn't make out what it was due to the sound of her blood rushing in her ears. Her heart beat tripled as she realized that she might not make it out of the situation alive. She watched as Kirito knocked back an LC member, slowly turning and running towards her. She fell to the ground in a heap, and closed her eyes waiting to greet death. A sword sliced through the air and slashed through the spine and cleaved them in half. But it wasn't her. Kirito had cut three of the LC members in half in one blow. He quickly disposed of the rest of Laughing Coffin, before he dropped to her side and used a paralysis heal on her, and then a Grand Potion. Her health restored in full, and the blood flow quieted in her ears. Her hearing returned to normal, and she could hear Kirito, but she couldn't concentrate on his voice. She pointed to the training room door; which was still closed. Kirito nodded and ran to the console, pressed buttons on the keyboard until Chelsea thought he was going to break the keyboard. The lights flooded the room, blinded everyone as Kohr and Volkatz stepped out of the training room. Chelsea looked relieved to see Kohr's face, but was soon confused when she saw it turn from happiness to terror. Chelsea flinched as a sword protruded from her stomach, put there by a Laughing Coffin member. Chelsea staggered as she managed to turn around and look at him. She saw almost 20 more Laughing Coffin members behind the one in front of her. As the sword retreated from her stomach, a second sword was on its way to bury its hilt deep in her chest, when Kohr appeared out of nowhere, fury and hatred in his eyes. He swiped through the one LC member in front of Chelsea, and then the one who was about to pierce her with another sword. As Kohr continued to massacre the rest of the members of Laughing coffin, Kirito rushed over to Chelsea's side with a potion. When Kohr finished slaughtering as many members of LC as he could before the rest retreated, he turned to face Chelsea. He sank to his knees and cradled her head in his arms. Chelsea let loose a torrent of tears and clutched his arms. She could have stayed in that position forever, if a rough pair of hands hadn't grabbed her by the hair, and kicked both Kirito and Kohr to the ground. PoH stood behind Chelsea with an axe at her throat and a growl on his lips.

"Well well well, gentlemen. It a appears that we have reached the end of our little battle. It's too bad no one else can arrive just in the nick of time to save you. Isn't that right Chelsea? You're all alone again. Just like your friends before you."

"You bastard. Let her go pOH!"

"No can do, Lover Boy! But I'll do you one better. Where I'm sending her, she won't have to deal with pain. Lucky her!"

"PoH! Don't do it."

"Shut up you muscle headed moron. I ought to just slaughter her here and now in front of you for all that you just did to MY friends and followers."

"If you kill her, you aren't going to be able to get out of here, and we're going to kill you. Or you can hand her over to us, and walk out of here in one piece. It's your choice."

"Hmm. Let me think about that...…... Sure. Why not. She's all yours."

Chelsea slumped to the ground in relief as PoH let go of her. Kohr dashed towards her with a healing crystal in hand, while at the same time, PoH had started walking towards the exit where no one was in his way. Chelsea watched as Kohr slid to his knees right next to her, until he held her in his arms. She smiled and brought her hand up to his face, wiping the tears from his eyes. She smiled at Kohr, remembering how caring he always was to her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short when an axe protruded from her neck, depleting her health to the end, before the axe clattered to the ground. Chelsea's vision began to blur again, and her body began to shimmer like the LC members and her friends before her did. She managed to mouth one final sentence to Kohr before she disappeared.

"I love you..."

And then she shattered into a million pieces, never to be put back together again.

(Author's Note)

*sniff* I always cry when I read this. Every time I read it, I can't help but think about that special someone in my own life, and how precious they are to me. This chapter is the penultimate chapter, and therefore, I am going to add all of the bloopers I have created over the time I have written this story, in this chapter. Farewell, to a lovely Chelsea. *sniff*

Bloopers of Aincrad

Chapter I: Scene 1 Take 20

The warrior brought his sword down on the Orc's armor, clanging off of it and taking a step back. The Orc made a dash for him, and as the Orc swung with all of the momentum he built up, his axe crashed into the ground, leaving him wide open. Te swordsman jumped at the monster, and swung his sword down onto a chink in his armor. He attempted to pull the sword out but to no avail. He tried again, and it still wouldn't budge. Again and again, and each time, nothing.

"Ummm... I don't know what the script says, but I'm pretty sure that my sword is not supposed to stay in his armor this..."

"Hahahaha!"

"I'm sorry guys! It's not my fault! I wasn't the one who put his armor on too tight for the scene!"

"Oh f*** you! I wasn't the one who decided to add lib the scene and jump on top of me! You were supposed to roll out of the way!

"CUT"

Chapter I: Scene 2: Take 1

Kirito had been walking on the bridge for what seemed like over an hour, when he saw a female figure clad in black and red clothes running straight for him. Not watching where she was going, Kirito had no time to react before she ran full force into him.

"Ow!"

"Watch where you're- Hahahahaha! I'm sorry... I actually ran him over! Sorry, did that hurt?"

"Yes!"

"Hahahah! I'm so sorry... I wasn't actually supposed to run him over was I?"

"CUT"

Chapter I: Scene 2: Take 35

Kirito had been walking on the bridge for what seemed like over an hour, when he saw a female figure clad in black and red clothes running straight for him. Not watching where she was going, Kirito had no time to react before she ran full force into him.

"Owwww..."

"Watch where you're going dumbass!"

"Hey you're the one who ran into me!"

"Yeah well f*** you!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"I'm sorry! I forgot my line after his..."

"You know this like the tenth time you've done this right? How many takes are we at?"

"35"

"Yeah, see? 3... Wait. 35?! What the f***?! How do you f*** up 35 times? Cause it sure as hell wasn't me!"

"Actually, half of those takes were your fault."

"F***!"

"CUT"

Chapter 1: Scene 4: Take 12

"AAARRRGGGHHH!"

"RAAAAGGGHHH!"

Kirito pulled out his sword, Elucidator, and pointed it at the warrior in armor.

"Bwahahahaha!"

"DAMMIT KOHR WE ALMOST HAD IT THERE!"

"I'm sorry! But every time the writer puts 'pulled out his sword' I cant help but think of about ten innuendos for that statement."

"Well can we not and just get on with the it?"

"Bow chicka bow wow."

"DAMMIT KOHR!"

"CUT"

Chapter 1: Scene 6: Take 7

"What the hell just happened?!"

"Heh.. You just learned my sword's special ability. Swords of the same or lower weight of my sword are knocked aside when my opponents try to block with another sword."

"That is total bullshit."

"You're bullshit."

"You eat shit."

"You are shit."

"You would know."

"Shithead."

"Shitface."

"Shitf***."

"GUYS! CAN WE PLEASE KEEP TO THE SCRIPT!"

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

"Damned kids."

"..."

"Dick biscuit."

"CUT"

Chapter 2: Scene 1: Take 2

Kohr looked up at her face and saw an angel in her eyes. Piercing blue, ruby red lips, flowing red hair, and a small pair of what looked like headphones on her head. She was dressed in a black button-up shirt with a silver collar and a short plaid red skirt, and brown leather boots. Her skin was almost a perfect tan, and she wore a white long sleeve shirt underneath her button-up.

"Goddammit."

"What is it, Chelsea?"

"I'm sorry Kohr, but whenever the writer starts monologuing about my appearance, it gets embarrassing."

"Would it help if i said it myself? To sound more realistic?"

"The more you try to flirt with me Kohr, the harder you make it for me to actually like you and take you seriously."

"Ouch. That's cold."

"CUT"

Chapter 2: Scene 8: Take 5

The Black Swordsman regained his composure and charged Kohr. Kohr anticipated this and sidestepped his attack and tripped The Black Swordsman as he fell on his face.

"Dammit, Kohr! You're supposed to attack me! Not trip me and make me look like a fool."

"It's not my fault you leave yourself open everytime."

"If this were for real, I wouldn't do that. But it isn't. We are ACTING!"

"Then you shouldn't try so hard to look like a fool."

"RRGGGH!"

"CUT"

Chapter 2: Scene 12: Take 3

Both warriors fell to the ground.

THUNK!

"F**K!"

"Are you ok?"

"Who put that f**king rock there?!"

"That was me."

"Luke, you're an asshole!"

"Tell me something I don't know."

"You eat shit!"

"CUT"

Chapter 3: Scenes 1-15: Takes ?

"Was I supposed to say shit or f**k that time?

"With ass or dick?

"Is it hell or bitch? I can't remember."

"IT'S NONE OF THEM! KEEP IT CLEAN GODDAMMIT!"

"Ok, god damn it, or goddammit?"

"CUT"

Chapter 3: Scene 17: Take 5

"Wow. I can't you punched every single one of them in the dick."

"Wow. I can't believe you grabbed every single one of them in the dick."

"Ok, THAT one was on purpose."

"Maybe..."

"CUT"

Chapter X: Scene: XX: Take XXX

As the… The monster… I… FUCK! I can't think of anything! THIS IS ONE OF THE THINGS I HATE ABOUT WRITING! WRITER'S BLOCK SUCKS! I am- blah blah blah blah blah blah BLAH! Fuck this shit, I'm out. (Does anybody else ever have these moments when they're writing or trying to think of something to say?)

"CUT?"


	15. Chapter 16

_Hollow Shadows_

Chapter XVI

Kohr

A tear rolled down Kohr's cheek as Chelsea's figure dissolved in his arms, and became nothing but shards of data, never to be glued together. He reached out to her fragments as her being became nothing a shadow of data in their realm, her real body obviously suffering from it. Kohr's cheek and chin became wet with tears as they began rolling down his face at a faster pace, constantly hitting the ground like raindrops on a stormy day. His mind went blank, not able to process what just happened. He looked around at Kirito and Volkatz. Both of their faces were frozen in shock. Kohr shakily stood up, and walked over to the console he brushed passed a stunned Volkatz, slowly pushing him out of the way. He punched in a couple buttons, fingers flying over the keyboard, numbers and names scrolling by. He reached a certain area that had the minimal names and numbers, one of the names beginning with "C". Kohr began typing in numbers, as his fingers began moving faster than ever. The data in front of him began to delete itself, as Kohr continued typing. It seemed as though the faster he typed, the faster it deleted itself. Soon, there was nothing left except for one line of numbers, and Chelsea's name with a line through it. Kohr stopped typing and turned to look at his friends.

"…"

No one had anything to say. Kohr sank to the ground and burst into tears. Volkatz recovered and walked towards his friend, leaning down to comfort him. Volkatz put his hand on Kohr's shoulder, before Kohr swatted it aside, ancried harder. Meanwhile, Kirito walked towards the screen. He looked at it before turning to face Kohr and Volkatz.

"Chelsea's data is gone. Nothing remains of her, except for her name on the wall in Black Iron Palace."

"And this."

Kohr held up a blue crystalline earring. It was in the shape of a polygonal teardrop, about an inch tall, and a centimeter in diameter at the top. It was Chelsea's earring she wore. Kohr looked down at his hand, the only object that was left from Chelsea's entire being. Kohr stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at his friends. They stared back at him before he walked over to the console and started pushing some buttons.

"I made a security firewall around all of us so that this area was to act similar to a safe zone. However, I wasn't able to program it as a safe zone, so I've done the next best thing I could. Any intruder, friend or foe, would be highlighted on our maps, and if they were to bring our health down in any way, they would be unable to leave that designated area. That's why I always am able to finish my prey. And this time, is no different."

"Then that means..."

"That's right Kirito. PoH is unable to leave this building. All we have to do is check the map."

"Kohr, you are brilliant."

"Obviously not brilliant enough."

Kohr opened up his menu, trying not to think about Chelsea while wiping tears from his face, and focused on the man who murdered the girl he was in love with. Kohr quickly skimmed through the map until he found PoH's highlighter, moving through the halls. He looked as though he was becoming more desperate by the minute. Kohr activated the command console and punched in some numbers.

"Let's get him."

Kohr punched the enter button, and the three of them were enveloped in a blue light. When it settled, they had teleported into a large room. Kohr stood there for a moment before a very panicked PoH stumbled into the room. Kohr immediately opened his menu, and from there, he activated the Command Console and remotely punched in codes. The hallways on each side of them all disappeared and were replaced by solid walls. PoH immediately retrieved a knife from his belt and threw it at Kohr, only to have it deflected off of Kohr's armor. It clattered to the ground before disappearing in a flash of light. Kohr didn't say a word, but instead opened his menu to press a couple buttons. A small screen popped up in front of PoH, as Volkatz and Kirito attempted to figure out what was going on. Then the landscape changed, and PoH stood up with another axe drawn. He smiled menacingly at Kohr, while Volkatz and Kirito both realized what was happening. Both started to protest when Kohr raised a hand and they both fell silent. Kohr stared at his opponent, hatred in his eyes, fury in his heart, and malice on his mind. Kohr bared his teeth at pOH, his knuckles turning white on the handle of his sword as he unsheathed it. Kohr had challenged PoH to a duel to the death, which should have been impossible, but Kayaba must have been monitoring their progress, and allowed it this time. Either that, or Kohr had just hacked the system. Either option was scary to think about. The timer reached zero, and all hell broke loose. Kohr crouched into a defensive stance as PoH rushed him with a speed that rivaled Kirito's. PoH swung his axe at Kohr's head, but was blocked by his sword. He pushed the axe away, and swung his sword with enough power to cut off PoH's left hand, leaving only his dominant hand to fight. PoH responded to this act with a wild swing of his axe to Kohr's legs. Kohr made no attempt to dodge this attack, and instead, took the full force of the attack, giving him the perfect opening to test the limits of his armor. Kohr smiled wickedly as PoH's axe embedded itself in Kohr's armor, but doing less than a fraction of the damage to his health. He immediately retaliated, and Besetzt came down from above like a hurricane, planting itself in the head of its opponent, almost splitting his skull in two. Kohr retrieved his blade, and followed it with a well-placed slice to his legs, literally cutting them out from beneath him. Kohr took a step back as he plunged Besetzt into the ground, creating a rift in the ground almost 50 feet deep and opening up a gateway to hell. Kohr summoned all the SP he had and all the energy he could muster to summon the most powerful enemy he could possibly create. He thought back to his many battles in the Hollow area. He thought back to when he faced the most powerful of all bosses in the area, when he almost died. The most powerful boss he had fought. A fitting title for such an occasion, Kohr decided that the enemy he was about to summon was too perfect. The crack in the ground grew larger to accommodate the sheer size of the monster, and as the creature emerged from the hole, Kohr smiled knowing his opponent was completely and utterly fucked. The boss that spawned glanced down at the one who summoned him, and turned and stared at his opponent, big red glowing eyes boring right into PoH's soul and bringing out the worst of his fears and placing them into the mind of the monster in front of him. The monster's muscles twitched as he reached behind him for one of Kohr's favorite weapons, a sickle. The sickle signified how insignificant it's opponent was, cutting them down like a blade of grain. The handle was designed with the faces of mortals, like the handle was covered with the remains of past harvests and dead grain clinging to the handle, wishing to find a final place to rest, but eventually realizing that there was no place for them to go after death at the hand of this beast. The monster's armor was completely opposite to the simplicity of the weapon in the fact that it was so elaborate and ornate, but like the sickle, its purpose was simple but efficient. It did its job well, protecting its user from harm. This beast was appropriately named, The Hollow Shadow, as it followed its prey around, and when the day was gone, so was its prey. And so it was with PoH. The beast simply looked down at PoH as he attempted to damage the legs of The Hollow Shadow, but to no avail. Kohr watched in enthusiasm as the beast reached down and physically picked up PoH, raising him above his head, readying the sickle to do the dirty work. PoH's frightened countenance turned to a sick laugh as the sickle sliced through what was left of his legs on the first swing, and then through his torso on the second swing. One of the sickle's abilities was that its opponent could not die, even if their limbs are torn off, until their head has been separated from the body. Kohr smiled menacingly as the beast swung the lifeless body around by the arm, slamming it into the walls, crushing it against the floor, throwing it at the ceiling, and chucking him at the wall again. Kohr ordered the beast to finish the task as PoH's laughs became wild and inhuman. The Hollow Shadow picked up the practically lifeless body in front of him, and with a quick swing of his sickle, killed PoH. There was nothing left to do. PoH's body detached from his head and hit the ground with a thud. The Hollow Shadow released the head of the former leader of Laughing Coffin, and as the head landed in front of him, Kohr watched it roll until the lifeless eyes of PoH faced him, his countenance frozen in a wild expression of pain, fear, excitement, and hysterics. Then it was gone. Kohr fell to the ground, exhausted after summoning such a powerful monster. His SP and stamina had been completely depleted and his HP had somehow been drained a bit from the lack of SP and stamina. The Hollow Shadow turned to face Kohr, and in a stunning move, he spoke to him.

"I will be frank. The only reason you have survived this long, is because I have allowed it. Don't take my kindness for granted. She will not be the only thing you will lose to me, Kohr. Remember that."

As the Hollow Shadow began to dissipate, it stared deep into Kohr's eyes, and recognized the hatred in them. Before Kohr went completely unconscious, he remembered one thing about the voice that spoke; it was the voice of Kayaba Akihiko. Kohr then blacked out, falling to the floor in a heap, and he was glad that his revenge was absolute. Later, Kohr awoke to find Volkatz and Kirito staring at him from above. He leaned up and looked around.

"Where-"

"Don't worry Kohr. You're in the base on a bed. You've been resting after your battle with PoH."

"Kirito. How long was I out?"

"Mmmm... Only about half-an-hour. You used up a lot of energy to summon that boss. That was incredible, by the way."

"Thanks."

"Kohr?"

"Yes, Volkatz?"

"I'm… sorry. About Chelsea. I had no idea that he would do something like that. And Kayaba-"

"Stop. Just… stop."

Volkatz looked at his friend, but Kohr refused to look him in the eyes. His face was warm with the wetness of his tears, and he hated Kayaba and PoH for what had happened. Kohr stood up off of the bed and took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He wiped his face, and looked both of his friends in the eyes.

"Kirito, there's something you need to know…"

Kohr quickly explained the situation about the cardinal system to Kirito while Volkatz remained quiet. When he was finished, Kirito nodded as if he had expected this.

"Then that means that there is only one way to finish this fight."

"And what's that, Mr. Black Swordsman?"

"We clear SAO. And with us three at the front, there's no way we can lose."

"Agreed. And Kohr?"

"Yes, Volkatz?"

"Let's do this last bit for Chelsea."

Kohr allowed a lone tear to fall down his cheek and dissipate into the floor. He nodded in response, and the three of them left the Ginriogia Void. Kohr opened his menu and activated protocol 42, which in turn began deleting everything in his base, including the console. As the last of it was deleted, the three used the teleport crystal to make their way back to the top of the chasm, and back to Floor 76 of Aincrad. As they arrived on the 76th Floor, Kohr looked around at all of the people he would now fight for. And as chapter ended, another began. And he began it with a blue crystal in his right ear, determined not to lose another piece of his life.

Hollow Shadows Epilogue

Kohr

"... Switch!"

Kirito jumped back as Kohr dove forward at Heathcliff, knocking his shield back and delivering a blow to his chest. Rolling back from a retaliation from the final boss of Aincrad, Kohr watched as Lisbeth and Volkatz worked together, bashing Heathcliff's shield until it moved out of a defensive position, before Kohr moved back and let Kirito use one of his ultimate skills, dealing enough damage to bring Heathcliff's health into the yellow zone. Kohr jumped in to defend Kirito from an attack from behind, before engaging Heathcliff for a short time period, allowing his friends to use HP and SP crystals. After everyone restored their health and SP, Kohr jumped back letting Lisbeth and Volkatz go back to knocking his shield while Pina and Silica attempted a sneak attack from behind, while Asuna continually barraged Heathcliff from multiple angles with her rapier.

"Kirito! Now!"

"On it! Volkatz, are you ready?"

"Let's do it!"

"Go!"

Volkatz's hammer began to glow yellow, as Kirito's swords began to glow yellow as well. Each activated their ultimate skill, followed by Kohr. He stabbed Besetzt into the ground, using his entire reserve of SP, stamina, and even a bit of his health to summon his prize kill: The Hollow Shadow. Kohr remembered the last time he summoned this was after someone died. This time, no one was going to die. The monster pulled out its sickle as the energy hammers from Volkatz's attack slammed into Heathcliff from all sides. Kirito used his ultimate skill, hitting Heathcliff over and over 27 times. His ultimate skill finished, leaving the last boss with one last section of health. Too much for a player to inflict enough damage, but it wasn't too much for a boss. The Hollow Shadow ripped through Heathcliff's shield like it was paper, before grabbing his sword and throwing it out of Heathcliff's reach. The monster looked down at Heathcliff, staring at him as he picked up his opponent and sliced through him in one blow, ending the entire game of Sword Art Online, before tossing the lifeless body aside to shatter into pieces. The Hollow Shadow turned to his master, bowed, and disappeared. Kohr turned and looked at Kirito and all of the friends he had around him. He fumbled with the earring on his right ear, the blue teardrop moving through his fingers. Kohr looked at Kirito before their world began to disappear.

"Kirito?!"

"What is it Kohr?"

"What's your name?"

"Huh?!"

"Your name? If I want to find you on the outside, I want to know your name."

"My name is Kazuto. Kazuto Kirigaya."

"Kazuto. It's nice to meet you Kazuto. My name's Noah."

"It's been a pleasure, Noah. I'll see you soon."

"Same to you."

The End.

(Author's Note)

The last chapter of Sword Art Online: Hollow Shadows comes to a close. I want to thank my friend Luke for helping me create this. Finally, I want to include a couple commentaries afterwards about the story, and the short stories I created. I hope you enjoy them, and I can't wait to post the next Arc. Remember; I will be posting it as Chapter 17 on this, as it is a continuation of this timeline. See you soon!

Kohr

The Making of Sword Art Online Hollow Shadows

Hi guys. I'm Noah. I'm the writer of SAO Hollow Shadows, and I wanted to write to you all about the fun times and the not-so-fun times while writing my story. So the entire story I made was based upon the video game, Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment. While not all of the characters are actually the same, the ones that remain include Kirito, and the mentioning of Asuna, Lisbeth, and Klein, there are also newer characters in the story, like me as Kohr, (a Unique skill, two-handed sword wielding player) my friend Luke as Volkatz, (a hammer wielding player who admires the crafts of others and lives through sarcasm) and a fictional character I created for my own, Chelsea. In the story, I wanted Chelsea to almost mimic Philia from Hollow Fragment, except that instead of accidentally being an orange player, she would instead be an orange player by choice, surviving off of thievery from other Hollows in the Hollow Area. (For future reference, for anyone who does not know what a Hollow is or what the Hollow Area exists for, a Hollow is a duplicate of every player in Aincrad, and the Hollow Area is like a testing ground for any new items or equipment, or even monsters. When the testing is done in the Hollow Area, the Cardinal system releases the object into the actual game.) Continuing, Chelsea was based off of my favorite character from the anime called Akame ga Kill. Asides from their appearance and attitude towards others, the similarities mostly stop there. I created Chelsea as the ideal girl for myself (kind of pathetic, I know) but I ended up trying to use her as a way for you guys to sort of connect with the characters. To feel their anger towards others, compassion, and Chelsea's confusion and conflict within.

Writing the story itself was a bit of challenge, especially when I jumped back and forth. Chapter one was the first chapter written and edited, but chapter 8 was right afterwards. I continued on bouncing back and forth, coming up with new ideas, and changing the story. My favorite chapter is when Kohr proceeds to show Volkatz and Kirito and Chelsea his "lair" in the Hollow Area. My second favorite is not really a chapter, but the "Day 1" short story about how Kohr got his sword. My least favorite chapter is the chapter with Chelsea when she was captured by LC in Kohr's treehouse and was found later by Kohr. While I am into romance in real life, it's insanely difficult to write good stories involving romance. I tried the best I could, but just ended up going with the flow. Usually when I am writing, I start, and then the words just flow through my head and into my fingers, like my brain automatically knows what to put next. Even as I am writing this, I am thinking of nothing but how someone would talk in a movie documentary, and I try to apply it to my story.

The final chapter in the story was when Kohr kicked the shit out of PoH with his sword's ability to summon other monsters priorly defeated. It was a little difficult to try and work the kinks out of all of my abilities as Kohr, but I took my knowledge of programming in the game as a way to up the ante on how I could make myself as OP as Kirito. I figured a couple extra things would be fun to throw in there, especially the boss of the entire Hollow Area, one that I completely created out of my mind, and how he appeared on the pages. My favorite lines were when I was describing him. The simplicity and yet how complex his armor and scythe was. The description of beating the shit out of PoH came naturally. I just thought of the person I hated the most and imagined tearing him to shreds in the game. It was fun! But I always have to remember that in the real world, nothing works that way. So I just learned to roll with what I wrote, and if I made any changes while writing, I usually wrote it into the entire story as part of it.

The hardest part about writing the story was the critiquing from other people. I have never been ok with others criticizing my work, but I attempted to take everything in stride, taking advice from my English teacher (who has read every single chapter by the way) and my friend Luke who stars as Volkatz. With their help, my stories have progressed further than anticipated.

One of the things I did was remove a chapter in the story, which was intended to be chapter five, as a chapter about how Kohr wanted to be all hero for saving Chelsea, and succeeds in doing so, only to screw up in some unimaginable fashion. I rewrote the chapter several times, trying to make it where the battle stopped just before Kohr screwed everything up, and to give hints later on as I what happened during the battle. But instead, it all just ended up being deleted from the story, as irrelevant to the main plot. In the end, I put the first half of the chapter in the deleted scene as "Love Talk" with the shorter version of the battle scene afterwards, called "NM".

Finally, to wrap up this session, I just wanted to thank my friend Luke for all of his help, and for allowing me to put his exact personality into the story as Volkatz. As for the jobs that are given to both Volkatz and I as 24 and 25 year old working class people, they are based off of our real life ambitions. And as for which one of us is 24 and which one is 25, I'll let you decide. See you all soon in my second arc of SAO, which will follow the ALFheim arc in the anime, switching it up a little.

The Making of Sword Art Online Extras

The SAO Extras like the Prologue, Epilogue, Bloopers, Deleted Scenes, and Short Stories, were a bit of a challenge, but fun to do. I had lots of ideas for short stories, and a lot of scenes I went back through and deleted altogether. While most of them aren't the same as the original scenes, all of the deleted scenes follow the same concept, and even fix a couple of mistakes. But all in all, the deleted scenes were mostly cut and paste from the story.

The bloopers were a pain in the neck to figure out how to do, but with a little time, I got a couple going, and originally wanted to do at least 2 scenes per chapter. It ended up ending before I could. The bloopers were more or less based upon movie bloopers, and combining movie like applications to a story was very challenging, especially explaining some of the things that were happening, without sounding like a complete idiot.

The most fun out of all of the Extras were the Short Stories! Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy! My favorite Short Story was the Muffin Button. I based almost all of them on one or more scenes from my favorite abridged series, TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Goku's references to the muffin button was my favourite joke in the series, asides from Krillin's owned counter. Priceless. I decided to make a couple references in there to DBZ Abridged, just for kicks and giggles. My favourite legitimate Short Story, (not a comedy) is "Day 1", which explains not only what a true gamer should've done after being trapped in a game, (hint hint) but also how my character, Kohr, got his favourite two handed sword, Besetzt. Now, Taken King is the update from my favorite video game- Destiny -which translates to Besetzt König in German. This is my ultimate skill of my Unique Skill. The only extra sword skill I am given, because my unique skill allows me to use both one handed and two handed skills at the same time. One handed being quicker and faster to cast, but less powerful, and two handed being longer to cast, but more powerful. My skill allows me I combine it to be faster casting and more powerful. One of the other fun things to do was to make the prologue and epilogue to the story. The latter being my favorite if the two.

I also wanted to use the short stories as a way to tell the reader how a lot of items and people came into the story. Telling the stories was my favorite part of anything, and I hope to have more of this fun in writing a story for the ALFheim arc and maybe even a Gun Gale Online arc. (Hint hint) See you guys next time!

Final Word

Fuck.

Just kidding! I just wanted to make a quick shout out (again) to my best friend, Luke, (again) who had just as much fun criticizing my stories, as I did writing him into it. Thanks!


End file.
